Hollows and Nobodies
by Yukihikari-chan
Summary: When a strange creature suddenly pops up in the Word That Never Was, Organization XIII is determinded to find out what it is! Meanwhile, hollows are dissappearing right before Ichigo's eyes. What's going on? WHy is this happening?
1. Prologue

Normal POV

Karkura Town, 10: 17 p.m.

Rukia rushed down Main Street. A powerful group of hollows had ambushed the town and it was up to her, Ichigo, Hitsugaya, Ikkaku, and Yumichika to eliminate them. From what she was feeling from Hitsugaya they were powerful. She was supposed to run into a hollow near the upcoming high school.

As she neared she could sense a nasty spiritual pressure. So strong it almost knocked her off her feet. When the high school was in view, she jumped behind a tree. She peeked out from behind as a dark shadow emerged from behind another tree a few yards away. She drew her sword and prepared for an attack.

Slow, still moments drifted by. Rukia didn't notice she was holding her breath until she felt dizzy. She let it out in a quiet whistle. The shadow walked closer to her and she could see it was tall, possibly a head or two taller than Ichigo.

Rukia tensed as she leaped up into the tree's branches and prepared to attack. She leaped off the tree branch and drew her sword. She raised it above her head and let out a battle cry (Author: it sorta sound like: Raaaaahhhhhh!!!!!). She swung it as the hollow blocked it with a large sword-like claw.

"Relax! It's just me! Have you gone mad?!" A familiar voice yelled at her.

Rukia gasped as she realized whom it was. She jumped away and put her sword back in its case that hung from her belt. Sure enough, Ichigo walked out of the shadows, zanpakto in hand along with a confused/ annoyed look.

"Geez…what are trying to do? Kill me?" He asked her.

Rukia felt her face grow hot. She was glad it was dark out. She shook off the feeling and drew in her breath.

"Sorry, I must have overacted," She apologized.

"Must have been one hell of an overreaction," Ikkaku commented as he walked out of the shadows, Yumichika beside him.

"What happened? There was supposed to be a hollow right here a second ago," Rukia wondered out loud.

"It faded by what I saw," A voice answered.

Rukia whirled around and Hitsugaya was leaning against the tree that she had leaped out of. His face was covered in scratches and had a couple cuts in places. There was also a tiny stream of blood running down his face. Despite his appearance, he looked fully conscious and alert.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by faded?" He asked him.

"I was about to use Bankai on him when there was a flash of white, purple, green, and black. Then the hollowed turned blue and froze, like it was frozen solid," Hitsugaya began explaining. "Then a crown shape appeared below him and lit up. Then he just disappeared, just like that," He finished his tale.

Yumichika gave Hitsugaya a puzzle look. "A crown? How strange, did you feel anything weird like…a unique spiritual pressure or something?" Yumichika asked, confused and interested in the strange occurrence at the same time.

"Now that you mention it…I did. It felt like I was near a bright light source, almost like magic in a way," Hitsugaya replied.

"Magic?" Ichigo wondered questioningly. "Are you sure you're not delusional from you head wound?" She asked him.

"Maybe it also could have been Hades dropping by to thank us for giving him the souls," Ikkaku joked

Ichigo yawned. "Whatever it is, we'll ask Kisuke about it tomorrow. I'm suddenly tired all of a sudden," Ichigo decided.

Rukia nodded as she pulled out her cell phone. She checked the map and sure enough, there were no signs of hollows anywhere in Karkura Town. She yawned as well.

"Might as well call it a night. I'll take Hitsugaya to Orihime's place so she can heal him," Rukia suggested.

"No, they're not that serous. I can treat them myself as long as I have some band-aids, bandages, and some of that Neosporin stuff," Hitsugaya told her as he counted what he needed on his fingers. "Why can't the soul society have Neosporin? Disinfecting wounds would be a whole lot easier?" Hitsugaya sighed.


	2. A Hollow in Kingdom Hearts? What the?

Chapter 1:

Demyx's POV

Organization XIII's lair, 8: 20 a.m.

I roll over and pull the blanket over my head as sunlight pours into my room (Wait, how is there sunlight in The World That Never Was?). I completely hate it when I get up this early. I face the opposite side of the window and try to fall back to sleep again. I do, for all of three seconds before the door bursts open. I'm half-conscious so I really can't tell who it is. But by the voice, it was Axel.

"Demyx! Get your butt out of bed before you miss breakfast!" He yells at me.

I groan and roll onto my stomach. I hear Axel's footsteps walk over before he pulls back the blankets exposing me. I give in and I roll onto my back and face him. He's already dressed and ready, as usual. His spiky read hair almost blinds me when its mixes with the sunlight. I blow a piece of hair out of my eyes and sit up.

"Get dressed and meet us in the dinning hall. Xemnas would like to speak to all of us, got it memorized?" Axel explained, adding his catchphrase at the end.

I give a puzzled look. I have a hard time picking up stuff when I first wake up. I looked down and see what he means. I'm in my boxers and Axel is standing in front of me. I feel my face burn, I can already picture what Axel is seeing right now. Axel smirks slightly and leans over me.

"You're so cute like that," He commented.

I swat him away and he leaves my room shutting the door behind him. I climb out of bed and almost trip over my Sitar poking out from under my bed. _Note to self: clean up room later._ I pull on some black pants and a sleeveless shirt as well. I grab my organization jacket and throw it over my clothes as I walk out of my room. I don't bother to do my hair because I'm going to the hot spring after breakfast anyway.

The "dinning hall" is actually just a big room with one long table on one side and the kitchen on the other. It the same as always: Zexion has his nose buried in a book (I think it's The Lighting Thief. Wait hasn't he read that at least four times before?); Marluxia and Larxene are chatting in the corner, Vexen is tinkering with some kind of contraption, and Xemnas and Saix are looking over something at head of the table. Since we sit in number order I sit next to Axel and Luxord. We actually sit five on one side six on the other because Saix and Xemnas get the heads. Xemnas clears his throat and stands up, shutting everyone up.

"Good morning Organization thirteen. I have just heard from Saix that he has sighted something unusual," He announced. "He claims to have seen a large creature roaming The World That Never Was. And-"

"Are you sure it isn't one of Vexen's experiments gone wrong?" Marluxia asked impatiently earning a glare from Vexen.

"Positive," Saix replies. "I tried to fight but it fired a powerful red beam that I barley managed to dodge. Judging by its unfamiliar feeling it wasn't any type of magic I know of," He explained.

"How interesting…" Xaldin muttered. "Are sure it wasn't dark magic or something like that?" He asked him.

Saix shook his head as Roxas glanced at him.

"Are you sure it wasn't a heartless or even a Nobody?" He wondered.

"Think logically, Roxas. If it was a Nobody than Xemnas would have told us about it," Xaldin pointed out.

"A word of advice, proceed with caution when you're sent out," Xemnas told us sharply. "Dismissed,"

Half of us left, and the other half stayed behind. I walked up to the bathroom and grabbed a towel and threw on my flip-flops and my organization jacket. I walked outside and was almost blinded by the light. Again, how the heck is there sunlight?

I began to walk towards our private hot spring. A funny story about how we found it. Vexen was testing one of his experiments and it flew out the window and somehow exploited. We went outside to try figure why it exploited and it lead us to our hot spring about a couple hundred meters outside of our lair. Turns out, something he put in there heated up in the water and went boom. Forgot what it was, but I'm way to lazy to memorize big words I'm never going to use.

As I begin walking up the stone path, a feeling of dread washes over me like an ocean wave. I turn around and see nothing but Marluxia's garden. I shrug my shoulders and continue walking. I hear an almost-silent growl behind me. I turn around and again, nothing. Is something stalking me or have I been watching "A haunting" too much?

"Saix?" I called.

Silence.

"Axel?" I called again. "If this is a joke it isn't funny!" I yelled bravely.

Another low growl.

I shake it off and continue. I hear a loud howl, LITERARY, right behind me! I whirl around and gasp in horror.

It's a HUGE creature that's a least twelve feet tall that has a deep red color. It's sanding on two legs and has two arms with swords extending from its elbows and a large tail. It has a boney head with piercing yellow eyes and teeth as sharp as butcher knives. A hole that goes right through its chest, likes its been drilled through. Out of all the heartless and nobodies I've seen, this is the scariest, if it is one.

The first reaction that comes to my mind: run like hell. I try to move but my legs feel like bags of cement. I can't take my eyes away from its deadly stare. When I turn my head away from its stare, I do exactly what I planned on doing, run like hell. I raced up the path towards the hot spring at lighting speed. I turn towards it as it disappears. I stop when I reach the end of the trail and it's waiting for me.

"Well…you look like and interesting snack," It mutters licking its teeth.

With no other choice, I summon my Sitar. The creature laughs before he runs towards me at lighting speed. Before he attacks he faded right before my eyes. I turned around and saw nothing. When I turned back around it re-appeared in front of me and swung it huge tail at me. The force slammed me against a rock like I was bug being squashed. Despite the pain I stood up and played a couple high notes on my Sitar.

The creature charged again but a huge jet of water blasted at him and knocked it off its feet. I smirked slightly, but my joy didn't last long. It jumped up in the air and slashed at me with one of its sword-like arms. I tried to sidestep but I was too late. It slashed against my shoulder, leaving a nasty gash that was bleeding rapidly. I clutched it tightly as I felt blood run through my fingers.

Panicked, I played a few more notes on my Sitar as nobodies made of water appeared out of thin air. The nobodies threw themselves at the huge…thing trying to fight it. The creature swung it mighty tail at them, destroying them in one blow. It swung its tail at me again slamming me against the rock once more. I fell over, coughing up blood. I already had big injury on my shoulder and it didn't have a scratch.

I stood up, aching with pain and played a couple low notes. The creature laughed and threw itself at me. Before it was able to hit me, a small stream off water slashed across its mask like a knife. It left a huge crack in its mask and it fell to the ground in mid-air. I turned and began to run away but I didn't get very far. I felt something wrap around my legs, making me fall over. I turned my head slightly and saw the huge monster had wrapped its tail around my legs and it dragged me towards it.

It stood up and held me upside down from its tail. I smirked, reveling its huge yellow teeth. It laughed, a deep booming laughter.

"You're quite the weakling, little boy. You can barley fight!" It laughed.

I tried to pull it tail off my legs but it was hopeless. He moved his tail up a little more before he threw me to the ground, knocking the breath out of me. I lay there gasping for breath, every breath I drew in sent a sharp pain across my chest. I was pretty sure I had broken a rib somewhere. My arm had streams of dried blood all over it and I had scratches all over me. I felt like absolute crap.

_Damn…how do I beat this thing?_ I thought. _If my water attacks don't do anything then…what wi-_

I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a slimy tentacle wrap around my neck. It tightened its grip on my neck as it held me up to its face. I had both of my hands on the tentacle trying to pull it off. No use. I was about to die anyway in the state I was in. The monster opened it large mouth as a red dot began building up in its mouth. I tugged at the tentacle with all the strength I had left. Suddenly, Saix's word echoed in my head:

"_I tried to fight but it fired a powerful red beam that I barley managed to dodge,"_

I that moment I threw I was going to die. It laughed as it aimed the beam at me and fired. About to die from lack of air anyway, I shut my eyes tightly and waited for pain to take over.


	3. What is it exactly?

Chapter 2:

Demyx's POV

I waited for pain. I waited for darkness. I felt nothing. It took me a long while to realize I was lying on the ground, breathing normally. I opened my eyes and saw Roxas kneeling by my side. I slow sat up and saw the tentacle was off my neck. Not only that, Axel was standing in front of me, his Chakrams in hand.

"What happened?" I wondered.

"I heard a couple explosions, some growling, and cries of pain. I decided to come up here and I find you half-dead in the clutches of a monster, got that?" Axel explained looking over his shoulder to meet my eyes.

The monster laughed. "You think you can fight me! If your friend nearly died fighting me than what can you do!" It boomed, laughing.

Axel smirked. "You don't who you're talking too. The name's Axel, got it memorized?" He challenged the creature.

The monster jumped above Axel and swung its tail at him. Axel jumped above the monster and threw his Chakrams at the beast. The beast jumped up, avoiding Axel's attack and swung its tail at Axel. Axel quickly jumped up and grabbed his Chakrams as it flew back towards him.

Axel jumped above the beast once more, Chakrams blazing with fire, and threw them at the beast. One slashed across the beast's face while the other sliced the tip of it's tail clean off! The monster roared out in pain and swung its tail wildly. Axel didn't have time to react before the monster slammed its tail Axel, throwing him against a wall.

"Axel!" I cried.

Axel stood up slowly, scratched in a couple places. "I'm fine, don't worry," He reassured picking up his weapons.

He spun around a few times before throwing them at the creature again. One sliced right through its tail again and the other cut off part of its mask. The creature roared out in pain. I covered my ears to try to block out the sound. I saw Roxas jump above it while it was in pain and landed a direct hit on the monster's head with the Keyblade. The creature fell to the ground as Axel caught both of his Chakrams as Roxas landed beside him.

"Is it dead?" I asked as I stood up slowly.

"Pretty sure it's not moving or twitching. Guess its dead," Axel replied.

We all began to walk away from the creature down the path. I thought about tell Vexen about it, he would love to run all kinds of tests and experiments on it. My shoulder still ached and so did this one spot in my chest where I think I broke something. Axel and Roxas are chatting, as usual, leaving me out of their little conversation as if I'm not there. I can't help but feel something is watching us.

I don't have much time to turn around before something lifts me in the air by my foot, along with Axel and Roxas. The monster has awoken and its eyes are filled with anger and the blood on its face makes it look tougher and more challenging. It takes on look at us and laughs its deep booming laughter.

"You really believe you can defeat me that easily? You must be pretty stupid. You probably can't even use kido!" He laughs.

I don't know what it means, but it freaks the crap outta me. It starts swinging us around like crazy. I world flies past in a blur. I shut my eyes as I feel my brain spin around in my skull. It finally slams us into the ground at two hundred fifty miles per hour. I sit up shakily as I summon my Sitar again. It won't do much but right now I don't care how we win as long as we live.

Axel climbs to his feet with a hand over the right side of his face. I can see blood running down the side of his face from a shallow wound on his forehead. Roxas is leaning against his Keyblade painting heavily.

"We need a plan," He decides.

"But how do we kill it? My Chakrams aren't doing anything and Demyx's sitar can't do much either," Axel explains.

"If we can't use our weapons…we can use magic!" Roxas replies. "One of us can distract it, I can freeze it, then, and then we register the killing blow!" He exclaims.

"That's perfect, Roxas! Demyx, ya think you can handle it?" Axel questions giving a hopeful stare.

I nod. "Yeah," I answer even though my shoulder is killing me. "I'll distract it,"

"Demyx! You shouldn't do something that risky when you wounded!" Axel scolded.

"I feel just fine," I lied.

"If you're really up to it…then fine," Roxas sighed. "You can distract it, I can freeze it, and Axel can finish it off. Now, go!" He commands as if his leading an army (of two).

I grip my Sitar tightly is both hands and take off running towards the beast, I've done a lot of stupid thing in my life…but this is probably the stupidest. The monster charges at full speed towards me. I play I couple notes and turn at the last second as it barley misses me. It only has time to turn its head before a blast of tiny streams of water attack it like a machine gun is firing at it. It howls in pain and disappears in a blur. I turn around and it's standing right in front of me and I take off running again.

I'm pretty tried from running but if I stop I'm dead. I've never really been a runner before, but the landscape zooms past as my legs carry me as fast as they could. My chest his on fire and my heart is hammering in my chest like mad. I'm basically running in a circle while it continues to charge after me. I turn my head as a red dot starts building up in its mouth.

"Demyx! Look out!" I hear Axel scream.

Too late. It fires the beam at me. I feel pain shoot through me. The world is spinning past me like I'm flying through the air at mock one. Everything stops when I feel something slash against my side: the monster's arm. The world stops spinning when I slam against a rock hard. I spit out blood as I lay there gasping for breath. The world is getting darker and darker by the second. I see Roxas shoot a blue beam at the creature as Axel rushes to my side.

"Demyx! Are you okay? Can you hear me?" He panics.

"Yeah…don't waste your time worrying about me…focus on the goal…" I whisper barley able to talk.

Even though I'm half-blind I can see Axel's worried expression.

"Roxas! Finish it off and hurry! We need to heal Demyx!" He shouts.

I can't hear what Roxas said but I see him blast a fireball at the creature, finishing it off. I feel Axel picks me up and throws my good arm over his shoulder. He and Roxas take off running down the stone path, as the scene grows darker. The landscape zooms past me in a messy blur of colors. I can't stay awake anymore; I fall into a pit of blackness.

A little while later…

Axel's POV

"That should do it…for now at least," Vexen sighed.

I glanced at Demyx, who was deep asleep. He looked so frail and weak. His blonde hair fell over his face in tangled strands and he looked like a ghost. His chest and shoulder were bandaged and a white sheet is pulled over his feeble body. My hand crawls along the mattress and finds Demyx's. I gently hold Demyx's hand and looks at Demyx's peaceful expression.

"Don't worry, he'll be just fine," Roxas tried to reassure me. "Right, Vexen?" He turns towards number IV.

Vexen doesn't answer for a couple moments. "He will, but what did this creature to him? No Nobody or heartless has ever wounded one of our members like this before," He muttered to himself. "What happened?" Vexen turned towards Roxas and Axel.

"We're not so sure," I started. "We heard some explosions and cries of pain and we went to see where it was coming from. It lead up to the hot spring so we went to go check it out," I explained turning towards Roxas.

"When we got there this HUGE monster was holding Demyx by the neck," Roxas picked up. "It looked…well it stood on two legs and it was red. Its arms had sword extending from its elbows and a tail. It had on this weird mask thing and there was a hole in it's chest, like it was there its whole life," Roxas tried to describe the monster, it made him shudder just thinking about it.

"It could also talk to, like regular English…and it responded to us when we confronted it. It also fired this huge red beam at Demyx and slashed at him with its claw…thing. After Roxas and I defeated it and dragged Demyx back in here," I finished.

Vexen was silent for the longest time. I could hear him murmuring something, but I couldn't make out the words. He glanced at Demyx before he turned towards us again.

"You this creature fired a red beam at Demyx, right? Saix mentioned a creature repeating the same action at breakfast," Vexen started explaining. "It must be the same creature Saix was talking about. From its behavior, it doesn't have the potential to be a heartless or even a Nobody," He concluded.

"Then what is it?" Roxas wondered.

"I don't know…is the body still there?" Vexen asked.

"Yeah, why?" I wondered. A light bulb went off in my head. "Oh, one of your experiments, is it?"

"Of course, I'm a scientist!" Vexen replied. "Experiments-"

"Experiments are what you do, we get it," I interrupted.

"You don't have to-" Vexen was cut off when the door opened. Xemnas stood in the doorway his golden eyes staring at each of us like lazars.

"I would like it speak to all of you. Now," He demanded, a solemn tone to his voice.

Vexen mumbled something under his breath that sounded like, "What? Is today interrupt Vexen day?" I would've replied yes, if Xemnas weren't here telling us to follow him. Xemnas began to walk towards Where the Nothing Gathers, Roxas and Vexen trailing behind him. I took a last look at Demyx before I started after them.

A little bit later…

Demyx's POV

I don't know where I am when I wake up but I can definitely hear people talking above me. I don't know (or care) what they're talking about but it sounds pretty serious.

"…We still don't know what it is and why it's here"

"How come he's so much more beat up than you and Roxas?"

"Larxene! He was in combat longer than Roxas and I!"

I'm starting to wake up after what happened. Everything to me is just a blur of color. I really can't tell where I am but I'm laying on something soft. I blink a couple times as everything start's to clear up. I can make out Axel's hair, Vexen's face, and Larxene and Roxas's faces. My sore body feels like complete crap.

"Demyx? Hey, are you okay?" I hear Axel ask me.

I blink a few more times and everything becomes crystal clear. I'm lying on my bed, in my room with Axel, Larxene, Vexen, and Roxas my by my bedside. I slowly sit up, trying to make sense of what happened while I was asleep.

"Are you okay?" Axel repeats.

I nod as I rub my head. "Yeah…I think. What happened?"

"You don't know what happened!" Larxene shouted. "Geeze…where have you been?" She commented.

"He's been in Lalaland for the past five and half hours!" Roxas shouted. "And you expect him to remember what happen when he just reigned consciousness!"

"I know what happened and I wasn't even there!" She shouts back.

"Larxene…your voice sounds like a dying elephant…leave," I growl.

"You're not the boss of me!" She shouted back at me, giving me a headache.

"You're number XII and I'm number IX, so I'm superior to you," I smirk.

"…I hate you," Larxene grumbles as she walks out of my room.

A heavy silence falls over the room. My shoulder and chest are bandaged tightly and I'm in my bed. I rub my head as Axel sits next to me. I look at the ground glumly. I can almost hear what he's going to say: _"What were you thinking back there? You could have died!"_ Instead of hearing that, I hear a joke that doesn't sound like Axel's mad or angry at all.

"Someone looks like a zombie," He commented.

I turn away from the floor and stare into his teal-colored eyes. "What happened exactly? The last thing I remember is getting shot with a red beam and passing out…" I ask him, my throat feels as dry as a dessert.

"Well…after you passed out Vexen and I patched you up and took you to your room," Axel starts explaining.

"After Xemnas called a meeting," Roxas picked up. "He wanted us to describe the battle in full detail to him. Then he said something about burning it and-"

"BURN IT!?" Vexen almost screams. "He can't burn it! I want to run some experiments on it!" Vexen objects running out of room like an energizer bunny that's been on steroids for way too long.

"As I was saying…" Roxas continues. "After we told him what happened he told us this twisted dream he had that involved that same creature and this other guy with brown hair that was dressed in black and white," He finished.

Axel clears his throat and picks up where Roxas left off. "We're not sure what it means yet…but Xemnas thinks a new enemy has arose," He finishes with a serious and dark look in his eyes.

**Chapter 2! I got this up so quick because of your reviews! They motivated me to type this! Thank you so much for motivating me! I'll get these up whenever I get the chance to! Bye!**


	4. Aizen’s Plans

Chapter 3:

Normal POV

Gin walked through the halls of the huge Hueco Mundo place a smirk on his face, as usual. Their attempt to weaken the Soul reapers in the world of the living had failed but a new, far more interesting matter had arisen. Tosen had informed him that the powerful group of hollows they had sent to the world of the living had mysteriously vanished. He had no idea why yet, but he had concluded that another force had mixed with the spiritual pressure field surrounded Karkura Town. It was highly possible, but at the same time unbelievable.

As he neared the huge door at the end of the hallway Gin's worries grew, like he was immersed in his concerns. He tapped on the door before it opened with a loud _cccrrreeeeeaaaakkkk, _giving him a headache immediately. No matter how much they oiled that door, it would always creak. "It'll be useful one night when an assassin tries to seek in and try to kill me in my sleep" Aizen would always joke. "Then I wake up because of the creaking and kill him instead,"

Gin thought he was crazy (Author: Yeah, like you aren't Mr. I-can-t-stop-smiling-even-when-I'm-about-to-die). Or maybe he was playing Assassin's Creed too much. Aizen was gazing at the starry night from the balcony. He turned around and gave Gin a confused stare.

"Gin, I didn't summon you. What brings you here?" He asked.

Gun cleared his throat. "Well it seems that the group of hollows we've sent to the world of the living have…" Gin paused for a second before he continued. "Vanished," He finished.

"What! How is that possible?" Aizen yelled angrily.

Gin had never seen this side of Aizen before and it was sure to get ugly.

"Where not so sure yet, Lord Aizen," Gin apologized. "Tosen been trying to figure out why but he hasn't come up with an answer yet," He added taking a few steps away from the fuming Aizen.

Aizen closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath and sighed. "What information does he have?" He asked impatiently.

"He's found some sort of unknown force in the air. He thinks it might have mixed with the Spiritual Pressure given off by the Soul Reapers in Karkura Town and caused an opening to another world," Gin began explaining. "We've also found mixes of that force with spiritual pressure, causing small portals to open up, leading to that world," He finished.

Aizen's anger suddenly turned into pleasure. He smirked as Gin raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Bring me Starrk, Hailbel, and Grimmjow. I have an emergency mission for them," He decided quickly.

Gin rushed out of the room as if his life depended on it. He ran down the hall to the wreck room, where the espatarelaxed (and where Starrk napped) after missions. He opened the door and found Starrk and Lilynette playing go-fish along with Grimmjow and Hailbel having a death match on _Ratchet: Deadlocked._

"D*mn Hailbel…since when have you become the Deadlocked master?" He grumbled under his breath.

"Haveyou forgotten I'm battling the main villain and you're still battling Ace Hardware?" She replied as she gave Grimmjow the killing blow.

"Ace HardLIGHT!" Grimmjow corrected. "He's not a hardware store!"

Gin cleared his throat loudly, causing the espata to look up confused.

"Aizen has requested all of you, except for you Lilynette," He told them as he gave the signal to follow.

"Whatever, I'm losing anyway," Stark agreed reluctantly as he put down his playing cards.

Lilynette groaned, the annoyance in her groan quite clear. Gin lead the espata back down the halls to Aizen's room. Upon entering, they found Aizen, whom was still standing where he was before, as if he never moved, which mostly likely hasn't. He smirked at the espata and gave Gin the order to leave. Gin bowed respectfully and left.

"I have a very dangerous mission for you three," Aizen began. "The spiritual pressure in Karkura Town has been mixed with another force, causing a portal to another world to open. Your mission is to-"

"Lord Aizen are you sure you haven't been drinking lately?" Grimmjow wondered raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Aizen growled under he breath. "As I was saying…your mission is to investigate this new world. See if anyone lives in that other world and if they do…bring a citizen back here. I would like to see if they have any information to spare about their world. Judging by their force that has broken through they must be very powerful and could be of use to us," He explained.

Hailbel raised an eyebrow, like Grimmjow had, as Starrk yawned. Aizen _must_ have gone drinking last night and he's having a hangover. That was the only logical explanation to the gibberish he's been saying.

"Go to Karkura Town and find a portal that connects to that world. You'll know you have found it when we see the scenery is slightly blurry and through the blurry spot and it will take you to that world," Aizen told them as he touched the air, opening up a garganta leading to Karkura Town. "And good luck," He wished them as they carefully stepped into the portal.

Starrk gave Aizen a quick, _Are sure you haven't gone mad?_ Look before the portal closed up.


	5. Clash!

Chapter 4:

Normal POV

"So you're basically telling us the hollow disappeared to another world?" Ichigo confirmed raising an eyebrow at Kisuke.

Kisuke nodded. "Yep, that's right," He replied fanning himself.

Ichigo, Renji, Rukia, and Hitsugaya were sitting crossed legged on the floor in Kisuke's shop. Rukia had reported to him what had happened to the hollow Hitsugaya was battling. Kisuke had told them that he would schedule a time for him to explain and talk about what it was, which was exactly what was happening now. Ikkaku and Yumichika had gone back to the soul society because another matter had arisen.

"But how did it happen exactly?" Hitsugaya questioned rubbing his chin.

Kisuke folded up his fan as Yoruichi, cat form, padded through the doorway. She licked one of her front paws and curled up next to Kisuke. He whispered a couple words in her ear before she drew in her breath and let it out in a soft meow.

"Its actually quite simple how it opens. When a large amount of spiritual pressure gets mixed with magic, the other force, it creates link between our two worlds," She began explaining. "This isn't the first time it happened. A couple hundred years ago a bunch of soul reaper captains got into a fight with Bankai and everything. At the same time to the other world a battle was ragging as well. Due to the large amounts of both forces it opened up a portal that connects our two world together," She finished.

"So to get it to open you need a large amount of spiritual pressure and the other force to mix at the same time?" Renji confirmed.

Yoruichi nodded and turned towards Kisuke. He cleared his throat and stood up.

"Of course its very dangerous when this happens and we need someone to close it," Kisuke began as he narrowed his eyes towards the group. "Its simple to close it, we do the exact same thing," He began to explain.

"But if we go to the other side to close it won't we be stuck on the other side?" Renji pointed out.

"True, but not true simultaneously," Kisuke replied.

"Huh?" The whole group says at once sounding as stupid as ever.

Kisuke rolled his eyes and walks out of the room. Ichigo gives Yoruichi a puzzled stare; she gives him the same blank look. Kisuke walks back into the room a couple minutes later, holding a dark blue box lined with silver. Renji raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something, but Rukia cut him off.

"Two questions. One, we're supposed to go to an unknown world just to close a portal? And two, why are you sending such a large group just to close a portal?" Rukia asked.

"You're not going over there just to close the portal!" Kisuke laughed. "I'm sending you there to investigate it as well. I would like to know more about the people there. Collect any information that you find interesting," Kisuke held up the box. "This box contains a little bit of magic, the other force, so when you closed the link you open this. This releases enough magic to re-create the link temporarly so you can safely return here," He explained.

"I'm not even going to ask how y-" Hitsugaya stopped when he felt dread wash over him.

The group froze stopped when a frightening spiritual filled the room. Ichigo growled under his breath and balled his hands into fists. Renji gasped, he knew what his feeling was. It was the espada; they were back in Karakura Town. Ichigo stood up and rushed out of the room quickly, changing into a soul reaper in the process.

"Ichigo! Wait!" Rukia cried after him.

She popped a soul candy into her mouth before she took off running. She was separated from her body in a flash of blue light. Her gigai ran after her, followed by Renji and Hitsugaya. She leaped over Ichigo's soulless body and rushed out of the shop.

Ichigo ran through the streets with only one thought in his mind. Grimmjow. He promised himself he would not lose to him again. As he neared the espada's presence became clearer. Grimmjow wasn't alone but with two other espada, judging by their spiritual pressure.

Meanwhile, Grimmjow, Hailbel, and Starrk continued to search the streets of the town for the portal Aizen had told them about. Starrk was resultant because he was sure Aizen was drunk at the time. But them again Aizen was on a strict "No Drinking" diet. Everytime he thought about going to a bar, Gin or Tousen would tie him up for an hour. Grimmjow stopped when he felt a familiar spiritual pressure. It was Ichigo, most likely wanting a re-match.

"Grimmjow, don't think about it," Hailbel warned as Grimmjow grabbed his sword handle. "Aizen-sama doesn't want us fighting. Save your strength for when we get the other world," She told him sharply.

"All I wanna do is get revenge on the kid! Can't I just strike him and run?" He demanded.

"Nah, then he'll come after us and we'll get dragged in," Starrk pointed out. "Plus I don't want to fight," He added with a grumble.

"How did someone as lazy as you become the first espada anyway? All you do is nap!" Grimmjow yelled.

"Don't do it. If we run into him then we'll fight. We most likely will judging by how close he's getting," Hailbel assured.

Grimmjow reluctantly put his sword back and the team of espada took off running through the streets. If they saw a blurry it would be sort of easy. If they saw anything that was more blurry then what they were seeing, it was they're portal. Halibel turned and rushed down a dark alley, followed by Starrk and Grimmjow. Karakura town was big but judging by the unfamiliar vibe they got every five seconds, there were quite a few.

Stark almost stopped when he _thought _he saw something usual. He turned around and ran towards it again to get another look. Yes, it was it! A blurred spot was on floating above the roof of a building with a blue edge to it.

"Hailbel! Grimmjow! I found a portal!" He called after them.

Hailbel flash-stepped over to him and smirked as Grimmjow's face settled into a pout. He would not get to fight Ichigo as he had wished. He followed his comrades to the building and jumped onto a windowsill. He jumped onto a balcony and leaped onto the roof. Hailbel and Starrk were waiting impatiently. Hailbel was about to step through when the sound of cutting through bricks made them all turn.

A thick cloud of smoke blocked their view, but Grimmjow caught the sight of a dark shadow. When the smoke cleared, Ichigo was standing in mid-air his huge sword in hand.

"What are you doing here?" Ichigo demanded as Grimmjow drew his sword.

"Ah, dang! I was hoping I could avoid battling for at least one mission!" Starrk complained.

"I got this soul reaper to myself then!" Grimmjow yelled happily running towards Ichigo at full speed.

Grimmjow swung his sword at Ichigo but Ichigo blocked it easily. Ichigo jumped above Grimmjow and raised his sword above his head, reading to strike. Grimmjow swung his sword at full force at Ichigo, throwing him to the ground. Ichigo stood up and wiped to the blood off his chin as Grimmjow charged at him. Ichigo raised his sword above his head again and swung it at Grimmjow.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo yelled as a blue shock wave shot towards Grimmjow like a bullet.

Grimmjow jumped above Ichigo, avoiding his attack. Grimmjow stood in mid-air as a red dot charged up in the palm of his hand. He smirked as he fired the cero at Ichigo. Ichigo barley had time to dodge, the force so strong it knocked Ichigo off his feet and his sword out of his hands. Grimmjow took advantage of Ichigo's weakness and jumped on him. Ichigo coughed up blood as Grimmjow raised his sword and prepared to register the killing blow.

He swung his sword as another sword blocked his attack. He gasped in confusion and looked down. Rukia stood firmly in front of Ichigo, her zanpakto in hand. She jumped above Grimmjow and swung her sword at him, making a large cut on his arm. Grimmjow growled under his breath and charged towards her. Grimmjow swung his sword at full at Rukia, which she just barley missed. She stumbled back as Hailbel jumped off the top of the building and landed beside Grimmjow barley, making a sound.

"Don't waste your time, we need to follow Aizen-sama orders," He whispered.

Grimmjow put his sword back and jumped onto a windowsill before jumping onto the roof again.

"Ichigo! Rukia!" Renji yelled as he ran towards the two.

"Follow the espada! They're going through the portal!" Ichigo commanded as he put his sword back on his back.

The group drew their weapons and followed the espada onto the roof. The espada were gone, but the view above the building was blurry, due to the portal. Ichigo ran determinedly towards the portal before it turned into a crown. Ichigo ignored the sudden change and leaped through the portal. Rukia hesitated before following Ichigo through the crown. Renji and Hitsugaya followed them through as the crown disappeared.

Their wild adventure had only begun.


	6. Espada and The World That Never Was

Chapter 5:

Grimmjow's POV

The World That Never Was 2:17 pm

I was thrown out of the portal like someone was chucking out the garbage onto the street. I landed hard on my stomach on dark pavement. Hailbel shot out and landed on top of me, followed by Starrk's dead weight.

"Get the hell off me!" I yelled shoving them off my back.

Hailbel grumbled and stood up as Starrk brushed dirt off him. I stood up and gazed around a like a little kid that was exploring Hueco Mundo. Everything was grayscale, dark blue, or black. Skyscrapers loomed over us and pointed up to the black sky. A giant golden heart in the sky caught my attention. It looked like golden heart that turned the sky around it white and pale blue. A pale purple castle, that looked like it was levitating, stood in front of it like it was guarding it.

"What should we do?" Starrk wondered. "Head towards the levitating castle or kidnap someone off the street?"

"Well if you haven't noticed Mr. Lazy there isn't anyone on the street at all!" I yelled at him, just noticing.

"Calm down, Grimmjow," Hailbel warned. "I say we go to the castle, we're bound to find someone there," She decided as she began walking towards the castle.

"Let's just get this over with. This place gives me the creeps," Starrk agreed following her.

We walked in complete silence. For once it actually gave me the creeps. It wasn't just silent with a couple quiet noises but complete silence. No birds chirping, no people whispering to each other, just complete, utter, silence. Where are all the people? I thought gazing around to make was also no trees or clouds, or maybe I couldn't see them. The complete silence was only interrupted by our footsteps walking along the pavement. I gazed at one of the skyscrapers. They didn't have any broken glass or anything, like they were brand new. We passed through what would look like Market Square, judging by all the empty shops and stands. Again, not a soul in sight.

Halibel stopped suddenly. She held out her hand, stopping us. She stood still and by the look in her eyes she was serous about something. I opened my mouth to say something but then I realized why she had stopped.

A dark feeling washed over me. This was the force I had felt when I had fell through the portal. It felt like magic, a strong type of magic. I didn't know what it was but I smirked. We had found a target to capture, and it was close judging by how strong it was.

"Be on your toes," Halibel warned as we slipped behind a deserted shop.

I leap onto the balcony and jump onto the roof. I scan the horizon to look for any signs of life. Nothing, but buildings and more empty buildings. I grumbled under my breath and continue to look for something, anything. A bright white light catches my eye. Its wide and it leads to what looks like the front door to the castle, but it's underneath it.

"What the hell…?" I muttered.

"Get down!" Halibel whispers as she pushed my head down.

I almost yelled something back but then I realized why she did it. Walking down the bright path are two figures in long black coats. I squint and get a better look at them. Their jackets are decorated with silver beads and two silver cords. One of the figures is a man with spiky red hair and green eyes. He's talking to a smaller boy with spiky blonde hair that is spiked to one side, like the wind is blowing it that way (when there is no wind), and bright blue eyes. I can't hear what they're saying but the smaller boy looks very interested.

"I think we've found our target," Starrk murmured.

"Which one are we after? The blonde one or the red one?" I asked impatiently.

"The blonde one…he'll be easier to fight judging by his appearance and the red one looks more experienced," Starrk replied. "Either way I really don't want to fight," He complained.

"You never want to fight!" I yell at him. "You always nap because you're such a lazya**!" I spat at him.

"Who's there?" A voice yelled bravely.

"You morons!" Halibel yelled at us. "We were supposed to spy on them like Aizen-sama said!" She snapped.

"I don't give a crap about what Aizen said!" I yelled sanding up. "I just want to get more power and defeat these punks!" I screamed at them before I drew my zanpakto and jumped off the roof.

I landed on the black streets and stood up. The two men stood in front of me looking like they were ready to fight. The red haired one summoned two red and silver Chakrams with spikes all around the edges in a flash of fire. The blonde boy summoned two oversized keys-one black and silver and the other silver with a golden star on the end. I had grit my teeth together to stop myself from cracking up like a mad man.

"Who are you and what do you want?" The one with the Chakrams demanded.

I smirked. "You've you challenged the sixth espada, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques," I introduced as I held my sword in front of me.

"The name's Axel, got it memorized?" The man told me with a smirk on his face as well, as he pointed to his temple.

I smirked and ran at full speed towards Axel. He jumped above me and threw one of his Chakrams at me. I jumped up and stood on the air and began charging for cero. Axel's eyes grew wide as he jumped up, a ring of fire surrounding him. He grit his teeth in determination as he spread out his arms sending out a blast of flames. I tried guard myself from the flames but they knocked me off my feet. I saw the blonde boy jump above me and whacked me with the black key. I coughed up blood and ignored the burning sensation in my chest.

"Nice one, Roxas!" Axel complemented as the boy landed beside him.

"Not good enough!" I heard Hailbel yell as she jumped off the roof and swung her sword at Roxas.

Roxas blocked her attack by making an X with his keys as he was pushed back. He pushed her away and swung his weapon at her again. Hailbel easily dodged and flash-stepped behind him and kicked him to the ground. Roxas quickly climbed to his feet as Hailbel swung her sword at him once again. Roxas blocked it and tried to push it back, but Hailbel was stronger. She jumped above Roxas and slashed at him, knocking the silver key out of his hands.

I heard Starrk jump off the roof and landed beside me.

"I thought you didn't like fighting," I pointed out.

"I don't want to miss out the action," Starrk replied as he drew his sword.

Axel jumped above us and an orange ball of fire began charging between his Chakrams. I began charging for cero as well. He pulled back his arm with the fireball in it, like he was pitching a ball, and threw the huge fireball at me. I fired my cero at the fireball, causing a HUGE explosion. Even in the orange glow of light I could see our attacks had met match. Starrk fired his cero at the fireball too; destroying it like it was a toy. The blast pushed Axel to the ground and sent him rolling across the street. He slowly stood up, blood dripping off his chin.

He stretched out his arm again as he Chakrams lit up with fire. He spun around and threw them both at us. Starrk jumped up, avoiding the Chakram, and raised his sword above his head. He swung his sword at Axel at full force but Axel blocked it by crossing his arms, holding back Starrk's sword. I could easily see the pain in his expression and the blood dripping from his arm. Axel jumped up and caught his weapons and landed on top of a building.

Axel's POV

I leaped on top of a building and ran behind a large air vent on top of the building. I examined my wounds almost gagged on the scent of my own blood. I had two large cuts on my arms that were bleeding heavily. I knew shouldn't have tried to block the man's sword with my bare arms.

"Come out, come out where ever you are…" I heard Grimmjow tease as he leaped on top of the building

I knew I couldn't stay up here much longer. Roxas was in trouble and every time I moved my arm it hurt like hell. I drew in my breath and grabbed my Chakrams again. I had a plan, but it was going to be risky. I stood up and faced Grimmjow. He was still holding his sword and had a wild an excited look in his blue eyes.

"You've decided to fight? I thought you ran away like a coward," He thought out loud.

I ignored his comment and threw a small fireball at him. Grimmjow growled under his breath and ran towards me at lighting speed. I jumped up just barley dodging him and leaped off the building. I began building up a fireball as I fell. I grit my teeth as I threw the fireball at the women who was fighting Roxas. She could only look up in surprise before it hit her like a boulder. I blast of hot air blew all around the area as I landed on the ground. I smirked, one down, two more to go.

"Getsuga Tensho!" A voice yelled before a blue shockwave shot out of the smoky battleground.

I felt the shockwave strike me and it slammed me against the wall of a building like a rag doll. I fell over and choked up a mouthful of blood. Now I know how beat up Demyx was when he fought that creature. When the smoke cleared a teenager with spiky orange hair dressed in a black kimono holding a HUGE sword. The woman was still standing in her place blocking the teenager's sword.

"So you must be this Ichigo Grimmjow's been blabbering about," The women started. "I must emit you do have quite a large zanpakto…but you're no match for the third espada, Hailbel!" She yelled pushing his sword away.

I slowly climbed to my feet, my whole body aching in pain. I saw Roxas fighting against Grimmjow and the other man with everything he's got. I summoned my Chakrams again and rush towards Roxas to help him. Before I can, I see Grimmjow fire a red beam at Roxas but he dodged it easily. He pointed Oblivion up to the sky as lighting rained down on Grimmjow. Ignoring the lighting, Grimmjow leaped up and swung his sword at Roxas once more. Roxas made an X with his Keyblades, but it wasn't a match for Grimmjow's strength.

The next few events happened way too fast. The force of Grimmjow's swing knocked Oathkeeper AND Oblivion out of his hands. Roxas didn't have time to react before Grimmjow kneed him in the gut throwing him up in the air. Grimmjow disappeared for a second and re-appeared behind Roxas in mid-air. Roxas turned his head slightly as Grimmjow punched him in the face, and Roxas fell to the ground out cold.

"Roxas!" I yell running towards him.

The man that was working with Grimmjow leaped in front of me and swings his sword at me. I block it with one of my Chakrams and push forward will all my might. The man pushed my weapon away like it was a toy and swung his sword at me, almost missing my check. The tip of the blade scraped against my cheek causing a small stream of blood to run down my face. He tried to swing it at me again but I blocked with my Chakram again and pushed forward again. The man pushed forward as well as I weave my Chakram in between his sword and yank it away, his sword with it. It flies through the air before landing on the street with a _clank._

The man jumps over me like I'm an easy obstacle and pikes up his sword. I turn around and see Grimmjow pick up Roxas and fling him over his shoulder like a rag doll. I want to finish this so I can stop him from taking away Roxas. I growl under my breath as stretch out my arm as another huge circle of fire surrounds Grimmjow's partner and I. The man stumbles back frightened as rage fills me. I usually never get really mad like this but when they mess with Roxas…they'd better start planning their funeral.

The man takes a few steps back before I jump up, letting the ring of fire consume him in an inferno of dancing flames. I landed on the hard ground, now exhausted. I knew that attack was gonna take a lot out of me but I need to save Roxas. I run towards Grimmjow at full speed, my Chakrams and my rage as weapons. Grimmjow smirks as his partner suddenly appears in front of him and swings his sword at me. I feel it's cool blade slash against my upper arm and a bit of my chest. I fall over, dropping both my Chakrams, and clutch my arm.

Without any other choice I turn and start running away. The man is right on my tail his sword is hand. I stop dead in my tracks as he suddenly appears in front of me and blasts a small red beam at me. I cross me arms again hoping to block it, but it pushes me back. I fall to me knees, as I hear Grimmjow yellow out something.

"Ignore him Starrk! We've already got someone now let's go!" He told him as he touched the air, opening up a portal leading into a black world.

Hailbel stopped fighting the teen with orange hair and run through the portal after Grimmjow and Starrk. I painted heavily as I fell over, exhausted. I could see my wounds on my arm were still wet with blood. I knew I shouldn't have done the last magic attack.

_D*mn it…_ I thought angrily. _I pushed myself too much…_

My vision was clouded by darkness as the teen turned around and rushed over to me. His eyes are full of concern and worry.

"Are you okay?" He asked sounding worried.

I wanted to say, "Ignore me! Just get Roxas!" but I didn't have the strength to. I saw a girl rush toward me as well but my eyes were half shut and I couldn't see her clearly. She has the same look in her violet eyes as the taller boy. I lift up my head and open my mouth to tell something.

"Save…Roxas…don't worry…about…me…" I whisper weakly.

I couldn't hear his reply but that drained me, even though it was only six words. The teen shouts something to the girl but I couldn't hear. My senses go black as I pass out.


	7. Join Forces

Chapter 6:

Normal POV

Organization XIII's Castle 9:47 am. Two days later…

"Xemnas, I have some information for you," Saix told Xemnas as he walked into Xemnas's large room.

Xemnas turned his head and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Yes, Saix?" He wondered.

"It's Axel and Roxas, they both disappeared," He told him, a hint of unusual panic in his voice.

Xemnas's golden eyes grew wide. "What do you mean disappeared?" He demanded as he walked over to where Saix was standing.

"I don't know, sir. The last I saw them they were playing Poker with Luxord and then they said they were going to get some fresh air. Its been a couple days and they're hasn't been a sigh of them anywhere," Saix explained. "At first I thought they went to Twilight Town, but they haven't returned yet,"

Xemnas's face twisted into a tight scowl. "Send the other members to each world and have them perform an end-to-end search of each world," Xemnas commanded. "Now Saix!" He boomed.

"Yes sir!" Saix agreed and he ran out of Xemnas's room to tell the other members.

He thought back to the day he last saw them. Nothing much had happened-he had played Poker with Luxord, Axel, and Roxas, he had delivered paperwork to Xemnas …he almost gasped when he realized something. When he had been delivering paperwork he had gotten a strange sensation. It felt evil and empty at the same time, like a Nobody. But much more powerful, and dangerous.

"I should have followed my instincts and checked out why I was feeling it…" He grumbled as he walked through the other member's quarters.

In Karakura Town…

Ichigo walked into the door of Kisuke's shop, Rukia beside him. It was still pretty early but he wanted to know if the man he rescued was okay or not. A couple nights ago he had dreamed of him fighting Grimmjow while trying to protect a spiky blonde haired boy. He had failed and he couldn't save the boy. He remembered kicking Grimmjow's butt like crazy when the man's words echo in his head.

"Save…Roxas…don't worry…about me…"

He had told Rukia about it but it still bothered him. Every since it was all he thought about. It was now eating at his soul like a colony of ants after a piece of bread.

"Who is this Roxas kid?" He asked himself as Rukia knocked on the wooden door.

"Ichigo? Are you okay?" A voice asked.

Ichigo looked up and saw Yoruichi in her human form studying Ichigo with a worried expression on her face. Her purple hair was messy and she was dressed in orange lounge pants and an oversized black T-shirt, three sizes too big.

"I feel guilty because I couldn't save the guy's friend," Ichigo replied.

"Don't worry," Yoruichi assures inviting them inside. "I'm sure he's fine,"

"How can he be fine? He was kidnapped the espada!" Ichigo yelled.

Yoruichi didn't answer. She sighed as she led them into the main room of Kisuke's shop. The main was empty before Kisuke walked into the room, Renji behind him wearing a pure white apron over an orange T-shirt and dark jeans. Rukia bit her lip to stop her from cracking up. She shook off the urge to laugh and her face turned serous again.

"How is he?" She asked.

Kisuke drew in his breath and blew it out in a whistle. "He's okay but extremely tired. His wounds weren't serous but he definitely pushed himself very hard," He began. "In fact he's a wielder of magic, fire to be exact. Plus-"

"Kisuke-san?" A small, quiet voice asked.

Kisuke turned around and saw Ururu standing in the doorway to back of the shop.

"He's beginning to stir," He told him before signaling to him to follow her.

Kisuke followed the little girl with Rukia, Ichigo, and Renji behind him. She led them to the back room where Axel was asleep (or waking up). His eyes were slightly opened and he looked dazed and confused. Kisuke smiled as Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji sat around him like they were observing something. Axel groaned and turned his head toward Kisuke.

"Well you're finally awake, Mr. Sleepyhead," Kisuke commented sitting down too.

"Wh-where am I? Who are you?" He questioned, his voice a dry whisper.

"I'm an Kisuke Urahara, but you can call me Kisuke. And these idiots are Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia," He introduced pointing to them, while getting glares from the trio. He quickly opened up his fan and began fanning himself.

"Where am I?" He asked again.

"Quit the questions, will ya? We have some questions for you," Ichigo told him.

Axel slowly sat up, with the help of Renji, and ran a hand through his spiky red hair. White bandages covered his arms from his elbow to wrist and the upper part of his left arm as well. He was dressed in a black sleeves shirt and black pants as well. A small red mark on his cheek was possibly the only thing that said he was recently in a fight.

"You're in Karakura town. We took you here after you passed out a couple days ago. You've been asleep ever since," Ichigo explained slowly.

"A couple days!" Axel exclaimed throwing the blanket off him and standing up. "I need to get back to the castle or else Saix will-" He fell to him knees clutching his arm.

"Don't push yourself so hard!" Rukia scolded. "You've been asleep for two days and you just think you can run out like that?" He told him as she helped sit back down again.

Axel drew in his breath and sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm Axel by the way, got it memorized?" He told her pointing to his forehead.

Rukia gave him a strange stare as Kisuke folded up his fan and chuckled. "Well nice to meetcha Axel," He replied.

He opened his mouth to say something else but Ichigo cut him off.

"Tell me…what were you doing fighting the espada two-on-three like that?" He asked him.

Axel gave Ichigo a puzzled stare. "The who?" He wondered scratching his head.

"Those people you and your friend, Roxas I think, were fighting," Ichigo explained briefly.

Axel stared at the ground. "I never intended on fighting them. I was only showing Roxas how the World That Never Was…was exact copy of Twilight Town. Then these lunatics popped out up out of nowhere and challenged us to a fight," Axel began telling the story. "We fought with everything we've got but it wasn't enough. They kept firing a red beam, like the creature that attacked Demyx a week ago. Then Grimmjow, I think, and his partner beat me up pretty bad and then Ichigo showed up. I really can't remember much after that…" He told them, he voice trailing off.

"You said a creature attacked you a week ago, right? What did it look like?" Renji asked rubbing his chin.

"It was huge!" Axel exclaimed. "It was dark red, it had a hole through its chest-"

"A hollow!" Ichigo and Rukia yelled out simultaneously.

"So that's what it's called!" Axel exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Vexen's been trying to figure out what it was for a week! He's been running all kinds experiments and tests on it like a mad scientist!" He explained quickly. "No wait, he is a mad scientist…" He added.

"It got there because the magic from your world got mixed in our spiritual pressure causing a link between out two world to open," Kisuke began. "While I'm on the subject…judging by your black cloak…you're part of Organization XIII, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, why?" Axel wondered raising an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Kisuke exclaimed punching his fist in the air. "I have a plan and it might work!"

"What plan? And what are you hiding from us, Kisuke?" Renji demanded.

"You see, a couple years ago while I was exploring your world I ran into a man, who is now a good friend of mine," Kisuke started looking at Axel. "He was wearing the same cloak with silver beads on it and he was trying to get a heart or something like that. I forgot him name now…what is it?" He asked himself scratching his chin.

"Xemnas?" Axel guessed.

"Yes! That's him! It's been ages since I've seen him!" Kisuke exclaimed.

"Y-yo-you mean you know a guy from another world!?" Ichigo exclaimed.

"Yup, so I was thinking we could join forces and team up to fight the espada and get Roxas back," Kisuke explained briefly.

"Maybe…just maybe," Axel started. "He might buy it. If we team up with Xemnas and couple other members we might get Roxas back!" Axel exclaimed hopefully.

"First things first, you need to get some rest," Kisuke intruded. "We can't just go into battle with wounds like yours. But lucky you a friend of ours can reject events so you'll be as good as new in, literally, no time!" Kisuke exclaimed giving Axel a thumbs up.

Ichigo offered Axel his hand. Axel took it as Ichigo helped him to him feet. He stumbled but then caught himself at stood up. Rukia followed both of them out of the room. Renji gave Kisuke a strange look and followed them out, throwing off his apron in the process.

Rukia showed Axel around Karakura Town while Ichigo was lost in his thoughts. Why were the espada in that world in the first place? Why did they kidnap this Roxas kid? He obviously knew they had sent the hollow to their world but how did they figure out what happened to it?

"Hey Axel? Has anything weird been happening with the organization lately?" He wondered.

"Other than the hollow attack…not really. But we have been picking up traces of his other force we don't know about. Saix's has been working on that as well," He replied.

"Other force?" Ichigo questioned.

"Yeah, there have also been these blurry spots everywhere. In fact, Demyx dared Roxas to chuck a stick at it and it vanished," Axel explained.

_Well…that explains the random stick that fell from the sky and hit my dad on the head. _Ichigo thought to himself.

"Those blurry spots are portals to this world," Ichigo started. "When our spiritual pressure mixed with your magic a link between out two worlds opened. Have they're been any huge fights recently?" He wondered.

"Well they're was this huge heartless that popped up and Zexion, Larxene, and Marluxia had to defeat it. Zexion and Larxene are big magic users so that's probably where the large amount of magic came from," Axel pieced together.

"We'll we've corrected one part of the trouble, we just to fix the other," Rukia began. "We need into infiltrate Hueco Mundo and get Roxas back…sounds simple enough, wouldn't you agree?" She told the group.

"One problem…how do you plan on getting back Roxas when they're Arrancars everywhere?" Ichigo pointed out.

"…Right…that's another problem…" Rukia sighed, disappointed.

"Back to the drawing board," Renji commented.


	8. Meeting with Organization XIII

Chapter 7:

Roxas's POV

Hueco Mundo 12:53 p.m, same day

I don't know where I am when I wake up, but I certainly don't want to be here. I sit up and rub my head. I can't see right, everything is just a blur of grey. I close my eyes and shake my head. I'm in a dark room with only a table, a couch, and a small window. Again, don't where I am, but I need to break out.

I stand up and try to summon my Keyblade. Nothing. I try again and nothing happens. I look around confused and dazed. I try one last time, again nothing.

"What the heck? Why can't I summon my Keyblade?" I muttered to myself.

I look down and realized my clothes have changed. I'm no longer wearing my Organization XIII coat; I'm wearing a simple long-sleeved white shirt with black lining and white pants with black cuffs.

"What the heck…?" I mutter to myself.

"You're here for a reason," A voice tells me.

I turn slightly as the door opens and a man walks in. He's as pale as snow with short black hair and green eyes. There's also a white…thing on one side of his head and green lines running down from his eyes to his chin. He was dressed in black and white, like me, and he had a hole that went right through his collarbone. Just looking at him gave me the creeps.

"Come," He beckoned. "Lord Aizen would like a word with you," He told me, not a hint of emotion in his voice.

I followed him with other choice. He led me through the endless maze of halls with high ceilings. The light was so bright I was almost blinded. We can to a stop in front of a large silver door. The pale man pushed it open and walked inside.

The room was very large and spacious. It looked like there was a living corner on one side of the room, judging by the bed and the dresser. He turned towards the balcony where another man stood.

He had sleeked back brown hair with a small piece hanging in front of his brown eyes. He was dressed in a white coat with black edges and white pants. He also wore a red blet that stuck out like a sore thumb. He stood up and smirked slightly at my escort.

"Thank you, Ulquiorra. You may leave now," He commanded.

"Yes, Lord Aizen," Ulquiorra replied as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

I stood alone in the room with Aizen. A couple slow and peaceful moments drifted by before he walked over to, looking pleased. I almost took a step back but I forced myself not to.

"You must be Roxas, judging by Halibel's told me," He began. "You are in Hueco Mundo, home of the Arrancars. The world you live in…has a link to Karakura Town; our goal is to attack it this winter. But we need a base closer to it, like your world. But-"

"I'm not telling you anything!" I snapped, knowing where he was going.

"You have no other choice. This whole palace is sealed off by spiritual pressure, you can't use any of your magic," He replied smirked even more.

"Then where's my Keyblade? Where's Axel?" I yelled at him.

Aizen chucked. "Your Keyblade is sealed off by spiritual pressure in another room. And your friend is dead sadly," He replied.

A pain struck me like I was being stabbed through the heart. How could he know about Axel? He was not in the greatest condition when I last saw him but he was fully conscious and fighting like there was no tomorrow. I gasped as I realized the truth. The people we were fighting we excellent in combat. A lot better than I had ever seen. There was a possibility, but…was it true?

"You're wrong!" I yelled back bravely. "Axel's not dead! You just wait! He'll come busting in here to rescue to me!" I tried to convince myself.

"You don't get it. Even if he is alive, he has no way of getting here. Your weapon is sealed away and you can't even use magic. There is no way of escaping, give it up," He explained.

I looked at the ground. He was right. I had no way of getting out. I felt him jerk my head up to meet his eyes.

"Now tell me…how can I eliminate anyone in your world without destroying it?" He asked me.

Elsewhere…

Karakura Town-3 days later, 2: 15 p.m

Ichigo's POV

"Hey, where's Axel?" I wondered as we walked along the streets of the town looking for a portal.

"He went ahead to gather the organization. If we convince Xemnas, we'll need a few members to help us on our journey," Kisuke replied.

I shrugged my shoulders. Whoever this Xemnas guy is I was about to find out. Rukia and Renji were walking beside me. Rukia seemed a bit uneasy, I wasn't sure why, but she was twitching every three seconds. Renji gave her a confused stare and turned towards me. I shrugged my shoulders.

We stopped when we neared the high school. I gazed around and saw a blurry spot a couple yards in front of us. Kisuke signaled for us to follow him as he stepped through the portal. It glowed for a second before shifting into a crown. Rukia stepped into the portal, uneasy, followed by Renji and me.

When we stepped out we where no longer in Karakura Town, we in a much MUCH duller world. Skyscrapers loamed over us like huge, grey giants. The pavement was pure black and ahead of us the black pavement turned into a glowing white path that lead to a levitating pale purple castle.

Kisuke lead us up the path, which I was a bit freaked out on. I mean, is it even solid? We stepped inside and I gazed around nervously. Everything was white and metal-like there was also this strange symbol everywhere. I swear it was on EVERYTHING.

"It's the Nobody symbol," Kisuke told us as if reading our minds. "I'll explain later,"

He led us through endless hallways and through a high-ceiling-ed room with a balcony above it. I kinda liked it in my opinion, but Rukia still had a firm hold on my arm like she was frightened child. Kisuke led us through a couple more rooms before we entered one of the strangest meeting rooms I had ever seen.

These really tall throne-like chairs bordered the room as if they were surrounding us. All of us stood in the center on that same symbol. Renji was gazing around curiously like a small child. The whole organization was gathered here judging by how almost every seat was filled up. But there was one that was empty that was next to a blonde girl, who looked as annoyed as hell. I could feel twelve pairs of eyes staring at me like I'm some kind of science fair project gone wrong.

"Xemnas, my old friend it bring me pleasure to see you again," Kisuke greeted bowing respectfully.

At that moment two men jumped down from their seats. One had pure white hair and long side bangs that hung over his fierce golden eyes. The other had long blue hair and an X shaped scar across his face and serous golden eyes like the other man. They both wore the same black coats as Axel.

"Kisuke?" The one with white hair questioned.

"Xemnas, you don't need to get all emotional just because it's been two years since we've seen each other," Kisuke began.

Xemnas shook off the thought. "You're right we have more important matters to discuses," He agreed turned around to face the organization.

"Organization XIII, I have some bad news. Roxas has gone missing," He announced.

A couple mummers rose up from the members but quickly died down. I see him glace at an emo-looking guy with blue hair that has his nose buried in a book.

"Zexion put the book down," Xemnas commands.

Zexion didn't seen to hear him.

"Zexion put the stupid book down," He tells him again, getting quite annoyed.

Zexion still didn't answer.

"PUT THE BOOK RIGHT NOW BEFORE I LOSE IT!!" Xemnas's assistant yelled loudly, scaring the whole organization the process.

Zexion finally shuts the book and puts it in his lap and listens. He looks like he would love to be reading it right now. Xemnas turns towards the rest of the organization and begin to speak again.

"I do not possess any information on where he is but we do have some that might know," He assured stepping, aside making room for Kisuke.

"I am Kisuke Urahara, first of all," Kisuke began. "Second the people that kidnapped him were called Arrancars. They have the powers of us soul reapers and of hollows, the thing that attacked Demyx. They have a humanoid appearance and live in Hueco Mundo, the Las Noches palace to be exact," He explained.

"Would it kill ya to explain what these fairy-tale creatures are?" A girl with blonde hair yelled out grumpily.

"They're not fairy tale creatures!" Renji yelled back. "They're souls trained to be fierce warriors!"

"Enough!" The blue-haired man yelled out, putting an end to their argument.

"I was thinking was could form an alliance to get back Roxas. We can't do it alone," Kisuke told Xemnas.

"How do we know we can trust him?" A guy (I think) with pink hair pointed out.

"We can, I may have only known him for three years but he is someone I know I can trust," He replied.

A couple more worried mummers rose up from the crowd. I felt rage build up inside me.

"Can't you guys have faith in Kisuke?" I yelled stepping forwards and silencing everyone. "He may be crazy, but you need to trust us on this! Think of it! If we don't get back Roxas then your chances of becoming complete are gone! Did you ever think about it that way?" I almost screamed.

"He speaks the truth," A familiar voice assures.

A turn around as Axel jumped down from his chair. I smile at him as he steps forward.

"I was there when the Arrancars kidnapped Roxas, so was he. I was injured and if he wasn't there…I wouldn't be here right now," He told everyone.

The room fell totally silent. I turned as Kisuke gave me a thumbs-up. I smiled at him as Xemnas picked up on where I was going.

"Going to Hueco Mundo will be considered a recon mission and a battle mission," Xemnas began. "I will send three of you there to retrieve Roxas," He announced.

"I'm automatically in," Axel decided. "He's my best friend, I should go. Plus I'm good in combat," He pointed out.

Xemnas turned towards the blue-haired man. "Who else do you think we should send, Saix?" He asked him.

Saix turned his head and gave the three of us a hard stare. I've gotten a lot of creepy stares before but his was probably the creepiest. They burned into mine like he could see right through me. Kisuke stepped in between us.

"They may not look like much but trust me, they can fight…especially, Ichigo," He told him with a firm tone to his voice.

"He's only a kid," I hear a voice say annoyed.

"Whoever said that must really want to piss me off," I muttered loud. "They basically asking for me to kill them," I growl grabbing the handle of my zanpakuto.

"Ichigo, control your temper," Rukia whispered to me. "Remember if we want to convince these guys we need to be as calm and cool as possible," She told me.

I draw in my breath and sigh. Xemnas whispers something to Kisuke before he turned back to the Organization.

"Whomever I send be forewarned, there will be Arrancars everywhere and they are quite powerful, from what Kisuke tells me and from Vexen's experiments on the hollow," He started. "You will also most likely encounter espada, the ten most powerful Arrancars," He finished explaining.

"Any volunteers?" Kisuke asked everyone.

Just as I expected, the whole room was dead silent. I swear you could hear crickets somewhere in the room.

"Well, good luck finding someone willing to go," Kisuke joked fanning himself.


	9. Preparations

Chapter 8:

Ichigo's POV

Shortly after the meeting Rukia, Renji, Axel, Kisuke, and I are sitting in a circle in the Hall Of Empty Melodies. Xemnas had told us to figure out the preparations while he decided on whom to send. Whoever was being sent, had to fight very well to even be a match against the espada, good enough to kick Grimmjow's a**. Renji had wondered why they just couldn't use soul reapers instead of Nobodies. "Because it would give more to worry about for the Soul Society," He had replied. Of course, everything is for the Soul Society.

"Well, if we're heading to the Las Noches Palace…" Kisuke started taking out something from behind his back. "We'll need to know our way around," He finished as he rolled out a large piece of blue paper on the ground.

Rukia gasped in shock. On the blue paper were _the blueprints to Las Noches!_ I raised and eyebrow in confused and met Kisuke's eyes. He had that devious little smile on his face and an amused look in his eyes.

"I'm not even going to ask where you got these," I told Kisuke as I flashed a confused glance.

"Good, 'cause I'm not tellin' ya," He replied.

"You stole them from Aizen, didn't you?" I concluded quickly.

"How'd you know!" He panicked. "I mean no," He 'corrected' quickly pulling himself together.

Renji rolled his eyes as if he were board, which he probably was. Kisuke cleared his throat and his expression turned serious.

"If we want to sneak to Hueco Mundo the only way is the break down a small portion of this wall here," He began explaining as he pointed to a wall on the North side of the building. "The wall's weakest point is here," He circled part of the wall with his finger. "So you most likely won't be detected if you sneak in through there,"

"I would do quite the opposite actually," I heard voice comment behind me.

I turned around and almost jump out of my skin. Leaning over my shoulder is a man with overly long blonde hair and freaky-looking green eyes. He looks like he's studying the blueprint with a lot of interest. Axel raised an eyebrow.

"Vexen, what are you doing here? Did Xemnas choose you to join us?" He asked.

"No, I was told by Xemnas to get Zexion and Demyx and bring them here," Vexen replied, still looking at the blueprints.

"If you ask me its plain stupid to in through the front door. You'll obviously get pwned if you just walk in," Another voice commented.

I turned around and saw two other guys. One had blue hair with a bang hanging over the left side of his face and blue eyes. It was the same guy who was reading the book at the meeting but now he didn't have his nose buried in a book and he looked at board as hell. His name is…Zexion, I think? The other member that stood next to him had spiky blonde hair, which looked like a Mohawk in the front but then turned into a mullet in the back, and eyes the color of the sea.

"You must this Ichigo kid I've heard about," The blonde one, whom I assumed to be Demyx, told me as he sat next to me and Zexion took a seat next to Rukia.

There were a couple moments of awkward silence before Axel broke the peace.

"Where did you get the idea of going in through the most obvious place they could think of?" Axel wondered.

"No one looks in the most obvious place," Vexen replied. "Think of it, whenever you're looking for something you check the places where you're least likely to find it. Then when you look in the most obvious place it's there," He explained.

"According to your reasoning, wouldn't they ambush us?" I wondered.

"You would probably have just enough time to walk in and go up this staircase, which lead to…this hallway here," He pointed out, tracing the path on the blueprints with his finger.

"You're insane," I thought out loud.

"He's right," Kisuke told us. "Nobody looks in the obvious place. Like I have a secret stash of Skittles and Reeses hidden under my bed,"

All of us flashed him confused and some-what-surprised stares. Kisuke gulped and looked from side to side.

"Did I just say that out loud?" He asked us. (Author: Poor Kisuke )

_He just keeps getting crazier and crazier. _I thought to myself.

"So, do we have a plan yet?" Demyx wondered.

"Not really," Renji answered. "We have Kisuke's plan of breaking down a portion of the weakest wall and we have Vexen's plan of going through the front door and going through this hallway," Renji explained.

"Both plans have their advantages and disadvantages," Rukia pointed out. "If we use Kisuke's plan we'll be more likely to run into the espada but it won't take us as long to get to the prisoner hold…here," She pointed to a small box in the upper part of the place. "If we use Vexen's we won't run much but it'll take us longer to get to Roxas,"

"But either way there will at least some guards guarding the prison hold," Zexion pointed out.

I put my hand under my chin and think to myself. What if we can somehow make a detour? We could go through the front door, take the left staircase and head through some of the older passages and get to the prisoner hold. But there's no guarantee we won't run into anything. If only I knew more about Roxas to could guess how heavily they guarded the place. The espada knows we'll come after Roxas, meaning we're going to run into at least some of them, possibly even Grimmjow.

"The espada know we're coming no matter what," I told everyone. "But the question is how heavily they're guarding the place. If they we're coming they're going to use the espada to guard the prison hold. I say we should go through the front door and see what happens from there," I thought out loud.

Renji nodded towards me. "Kisuke, when we do go to Hueco Mundo, can we use those blue prints of yours?" He asked.

"Sure, just return it to me in mint conation," He replied, rolling up the blue prints.

"So we just go through the most obvious place we can think of and go from there?" Demyx confirmed. "That spells suicide in every possible way,"

"Crazy as it is, it might just work," Vexen commented as he left the room.

"Is he always that much of a nutcase?" I wondered.

"You haven't seen Saix in moonlight," Zexion said to me.

"Be forewarned," Kisuke warned us. "Hueco Mundo tends to get very cold, bring a warm cloak. Our enemies are extremely powerful, bring any thing that can boost your magic or enhance your weapons. They're probably five times stronger then the toughest heartless you've ever fought. Don't get careless…and fight with everything you got!" Kisuke exclaimed.

Later that same day…

Kisuke led us to the basement of his shop. Zexion, Axel, and Demyx were gazing around in shock and confusion. I could almost hear their thoughts: this is a basement?! I remember having those same thoughts when I was first down here. He led us to the very back of it where two large poles of wood stood on both sides of a rock formation. It looked like the gateway to somewhere foreign, like Hueco Mundo. Kisuke leaped on top of one of the poles and looked down at us.

"Are you guys ready?" He asked us.

"Almost forgot," Renji said to himself tossing Axel, Zexion, and Demyx a pale brown cloak. "You might want these it does get pretty cold in Hueco Mundo," He told them.

The three of them slipped their cloaks on over their coats and Axel gave a thumbs-up to Kisuke. Kisuke nodded towards them and pulled out a cane he kneeled on the wooden beam and began chanting some kind of ancient chant (It was that chant he used to open the portal in episode 143). His cane began to glow light blue and it spread like tree sap running down a tree. It continued to spread until the entire wooden beam was cloaked in a pale blue light. Suddenly, a blue beam shot out from the beam Kisuke was sitting and spread to the other one! Within a matter of seconds a black line appeared and stretched into what look like a black hole.

"Good luck!" Kisuke called to us as we leaped into the portal.

"Roxas, hold on…I'm coming," I heard Axel whisper to himself as the portal closed behind us.


	10. …How do we get in?

Chapter 9

Normal POV

The group leaped out of the dark portal and landed in the sand of Hueco Mundo. Zexion stood up and brushed sand off of him while Axel and Demyx gazed around in curiosity. The sky was pitch black, no stars, only a crescent moon cast a silver glow across the sandy landscape. There were also a couple silver trees scattered across the gently rolling hills of sand. The air had a sharp chill to it and an eerie feel, as if something evil was lurking here.

"This is Hueco Mundo?" Axel questioned.

"Yeah, happy place isn't it?" Renji replied.

"That's where we're going," Ichigo announced to the group pointing to the Las Noches place. "Do you still have the blueprints, Renji?" He checked.

Renji nodded solemnly. "We should get moving," He decided.

Everyone nodded in agreement and took off running towards the huge palace. They didn't much of anything except for lizards wearing hollow masks and demented-looking birds. The only thing that was on Axel's mind was Roxas. He was going to get Roxas back even if he had to give his own life. Xemnas even became grumpy when he found out about Roxas. So it also meant if they got back Roxas Xemnas would be in a good mood and wouldn't chuck whatever's in his hand at the members.

Elsewhere…

Roxas sat in front of the window in the room. The moon's silver light flittered through the window. His arms and legs were scratched and bruised. Aizen had forced him to tell him how to get into The World That Never Was but Roxas had resisted for a whole five minutes before Aizen forced it outta him by having Grimmjow kick him around a bit. Guilt now overcame Roxas like an ocean wave. He could almost hear the organization yelling at him in his thoughts…

"_Traitor!"_

"_You Moran! Do you realize what you've done?"_

"_We're all going to die because of you, Roxas…I thought we were friends,"_

Roxas balled his hands into fists. Oh how he wanted to take what he did back! If only he were more persistent in battle he wouldn't be in this mess. If the hollow hadn't popped up, Demyx wouldn't have gotten hurt and…it hurt his non-existent heart to think about Axel. The last he saw him he wasn't holding up too well against the espada. He didn't know weather Axel was dead or alive. Roxas wished he could see Axel, just to see if he was alive.

He snapped out of his thoughts when an overwhelming feeling overcame him. It was so powerful it shook the room. He gasped as one word escaped his lips.

"Axel," He was here in Hueco Mundo.

Aizen smirked slightly to himself as soon as he felt Ichigo's spiritual pressure. Just as he had thought, they had come to get Roxas. He snapped out of his thoughts when Gin walked in and bowed respectfully.

"Lord Aizen, Ichigo and a group of soul reapers have entered Hueco Mundo. Should I set up guards?" He asked.

"No, I have a batter idea in store for them," He replied smirking to himself.

Back with Ichigo…

Ichigo stopped dead in front of the Las Noches palace. It was huge! It loomed over them like a dragon about to devour a poor little sheep. It was entirely white and the front door was charcoal grey. Ichigo stepped forwards and opened the door just a crack and pecked in. There was a bare wall ahead and two huge spiral staircases on either side of the huge front hall. Ichigo causality stepped in and gazed around, not a soul in sight.

"The coast's clear," He told the group.

All of them stepped in and gazed around as well.

"Weird…I thought there would be thousands of guards here," Demyx shrugged his shoulders. "Guess Vexen was right for once,"

"The espada aren't idiots," Rukia warned Demyx. "They probably knew we were coming and have laid a trap for us elsewhere. They want us to think we can let our guard down," Rukia explained with a serous look in her eyes.

"I say we should split up," Renji decided pulling out the blueprints. "We really don't where these might lead but we should look,"

"We don't have time to sightsee," Zexion said firmly. "Xemnas's orders were to find Roxas and get out as quick as possible. Plus if we split we'll risk getting hurt because we'll only be half as strong as we would be together," He explained.

Ichigo nodded. "I agree with Zexion. Now, what staircase should we go up?" He wondered looked at the two huge staircases.

Renji studied the blueprints for a second. The left one leads to a coffee stain (according to the blueprints) and the right one leads to a series off hallways leading to the prison hold.

"The only option is to go up the right one because I can't see where the left one goes," Renji told the group. "No thanks to Kisuke's coffee," He added with a mutter.

Ichigo nodded and began to walk up the huge spiral stairway. The rest of the group followed as Zexion carefully studied his surroundings. Of course the place was huge but it was made of a sturdy building material. Zexion also noticed something else: the place felt like it was sealed off my some other force.

"Does anybody else feel like their powers are blocked off by something?" He asked everyone.

"No, why?" Rukia replied.

"I feel…like I can't use a simple fireball," Zexion told Rukia.

Rukia thought for a second. "Try using something simple," She suggested.

Zexion tried to shoot a small fireball the wall head of them but…nothing happened. Axel and Demyx gasped in horror. If Zexion couldn't use magic then they couldn't summon their weapons. Zexion tried it again…but had the same outcome.

"What the heck…why can't I use magic?" Zexion muttered to himself.

"Use guys have your weapons, don't you? Why can't you just use those?" Ichigo pointed out.

"Moran, you need magic to summon your weapon!" Demyx almost yelled at Ichigo.

Rukia closed her eyes and concentrated. Now looking at it, she could feel spiritual pressure on every wall of the palace. The place was completely sealed off by a powerful spiritual pressure.

"This Aizen guy must have sealed off the building to prevent Roxas from using magic or summoning his Keyblade," Axel concluded. "Since he can't use magic or summon our weapons we're basically just extra weight,"

"Wait! Zexion can't you make an exact copy of somebody else's weapon?" Demyx asked him.

"I can but that requires magic! The best weapon we got is our fist!" Zexion almost yelled at Demyx, he tension in his voice quite clear.

_I wish we had dragged along Saix right now._ He thought to himself.

"Well…we're in deep s***," Ichigo muttered to himself.

"Wait a second, I have an idea," Rukia told everyone as she took her sword out of it's case. "Zexion, try to use my sword," She told him handing him her sword.

"Rukia, are you crazy?" Renji asked her. "Your zanpakto is your only weapon!" He scolded.

"You're wrong, Renji. We still have our dark force, but for Ichigo that's a bit a problem," She pointed out.

Zexion studied her sword carefully. It looked just like a regular katana and everything. It felt kinda weird to Zexion because the only weapon he's ever used was a book. He stepped ahead of group and took a couple practice swings. It was going to take a little time to get used too, but it's the only opinion.

"I accept you offer…though I would prefer using my Lexicon," Zexion muttered to himself.

"You're telling me I need to use a sword? You've gotta be kidding me, I'd rather us Axel's Chakrams," Demyx complained.

"Hey! My Chakrams are amazing! At least my weapon isn't an oversized guitar!" He yelled back at Demyx.

"What did you call my Sitar?" Demyx shouted back.

"Break it up! Do you want the espada to know we're here?" She yelled at Axel and Demyx.

"She's right, let's go," Ichigo decided.

A while later, after (what seemed like) hours of climbing stairs, the group came to a spacious room. Across the room were two hallways that branched off into unknown areas. Renji stepped forwards and studied the hallways and glanced at the blueprints; then at the hallways again. He shook his head disapprovingly and turned back to the group.

"I can't tell where these tunnels lead too," Renji began. "But either one could lead to Roxas. The only option is to split up,"

"Are you crazy?" Demyx almost screamed. "If we split up, than I won't be able to defend myself. Plus I-"

"The boy's right," A voice agreed.

"Who's there?" Ichigo challenged as he drew his enormous sword.

A figure suddenly appeared in front of the group. Ulquiorra sighed and faced the tense group.

"If you split up, then you risk the chance of losing a comrade. Half of you are powerless, meaning the other half are superior," He pointed out.

Axel growled under his breath. "Where's Roxas? What have you freaks done to him?" He demanded.

Ulquiorra drew in his breath and sighed. "Foolish boy…he is being kept for secret purposes. But if you wish to ventu-"

"I don't care what you say d*mnit!" Axel snapped as he grabbed Rukia's sword from Zexion. "Just tell me where he is!" He screamed as he ran towards Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra drew his sword as well and met match with Axel. Axel swung the sword at Ulquiorra once more, but Ulquiorra easily dodged. He jumped up and swung his sword at Axel. Axel jumped away, just barley missing it as he slashed off a couple strands of red hair.

Ulquiorra swung his sword at Axel, but Axel barley missed it. He jumped up and raised his sword above his head, ready to kill Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra met match with Axel's sword and swung his sword at it, almost knocking it out of Axel's hands. Axel jumped up and swung the sword at Ulquiorra, filled with rage. At the last second, Axel threw the sword at Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra held his ground calmly as he grabbed Rukia's sword.

Axel's eyes grew wide in fear as Ulquiorra charged at him and tried to slash against Axel, but he dodged swiftly. Axel jumped back and Ulquiorra swung the two katanas at him once more. Rukia muttered something under her breath before she shot a fireball at Ulquiorra. The fireball hit Ulquiorra's hand, causing him to drop Rukia's sword. Axel dove towards the sword and grabbed it as Ulquiorra began to charge up for cero. Axel quickly jumped up, barely missing the deadly red beam.

"Dance! Sode No Shiroyuki!" Rukia yelled out as her sword turned white in Axel's hand.

Axel's eyes grew huge at the sight of the white zanpakto. He barely had the chance to react to this before Rukia shouted something out again.

"Pakurn!"

Axel nearly jumped back as a white beam shot out from the zanpakto. Ulquiorra dissappeared in a blurr right before the right beam hit him. He re-appeared a couple yards away from Axel. He stared at them through his emotionless green eyes as he put his sword back in its case.

"You fight well for someone who has never wielded a zanpakto before," He complemented. "Roxas speaks well of you. But next time we meet…I won't show any mercy against you and Ichigo. I will kill you both without hesitation," He finished before he disappeared in a blur of white.


	11. Double the determination

Chapter 10

Normal POV

The Castle That Never Was- 9:07 pm

Kisuke sighed as he thought to himself. He was at the Alter of Naught thinking to himself. The night was cold and there was a slight breeze. He was debuting weather it was a good idea to send Axel. From what Xemnas had told him he was tense and concerned about Roxas. Judging by how fondly Axel spoke of him, they were close. Saix had told him that at night he could hear Axel pacing outside of the other members' rooms.

Kisuke heard footsteps behind him, snapping out of his thoughts. He turned and saw Saix walking towards him. His expression was serous, as usual, but he had more an edge to his expression.

"Saix…I haven't gotten a chance to speak with you. When I first met you, when you first joined, you hardly said a word. What brings you here?" He wondered.

"Something was concerning Xemnas and I," Saix began. "A couple weeks ago Xemnas dreamed of a man dressed in black and white with brown hair. From how you describe Aizen, it's the same man from Xemnas's dream. He's having more and more dreams with him in them ever since," He explained.

"Strange…" Kisuke thought to himself for a second. "Maybe Aizen is sending these dreams to him by using the glitches in our world to send them. What was the latest one about?"

"This whole word was destroyed and all of us were eliminated. Roxas was standing beside Aizen looking guilty. He said something like, "I'm sorry," before the scene faded. Next, a huge building stood in the place of the castle. It was white and had two huge towers on the sides," Saix replied.

"Well…that has end of this world written all over it," Kisuke chuckled to himself.

"This isn't a joke!" Saix snapped as he summoned his Claymore. His eyes seemed to glow and his hair looked messier. "You don't understand what might happen if the Keyblade wielder falls into the wrong hands!" He screamed, swinging his Claymore at Kisuke.

Kisuke jumped back, dodging the first attack; but Saix was quicker. He ran behind Kisuke with his Claymore raised above his head, ready to strike. Kisuke drew his sword and met match with Saix. Saix roared out in anger and swung his Claymore at Kisuke once more. Kisuke jumped above Saix and leaped over him.

_What happened to him? One second he was calm and the next he went berserk! _Kisuke thought.

Saix ran towards Kisuke at full speed. His hair was now tangled and his scar suddenly seemed a shade darker. Saix swung it at Kisuke, but Kisuke blocked it. Saix roared again and swung his Claymore at Kisuke once more; knocking Benihime out of his hands and knocking Kisuke to the ground. Saix smirked as he tossed back his head and let out a loud, joyous howl. Kisuke shut his eyes and braced himself as Saix raised his Claymore above his head, ready to register the killing blow.

Kisuke wait for pain to overthrow his body. He waited for eternal darkness. Seconds passed. Moments passed. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes and almost jumped out of his skin! He took a closer look and saw that Saix was frozen solid. His Claymore was only inches above his head, and his body was still in a light blue block of ice.

"Kisuke! Are you alright?" Xemnas asked running over to him.

Kisuke waited for his racing heart to slow down. "Yeah…what happened to him? One second he was perfectly calm, the next he went berserk!" He exclaimed.

"Maybe you should have told him what happens to Saix in moonlight," Vexen suggested walking over to where the two were talking.

Xemnas helped Kisuke stand up and sighed. "Maybe I should have told you. When ever Saix is in, any, moonlight he goes berserk. That's why we never let him near any windows, let alone outside, when the moon is out," Xemnas explained.

"So in simplest form he's a werewolf?" Kisuke wondered.

Xemnas nodded and turned towards the sky. "Clouds are moving in. Hopefully they'll cover up the moon by the time he thaws out," He thought to himself.

"How long will it take him to thaw out?" Kisuke wondered looking at Saix, who still stood frozen in a block of ice.

"Usually a couple hours," Vexen answered. "The most time it took for someone to thaw out two days. But that was in the middle of winter. But tonight is pretty cold…he'll thaw out by morning at the longest," He explained as the three walked back inside, leaving Saix to thaw out.

Back In Hueco Mundo…

Rukia, Demyx, and Zexion raced through Las Noches's endless hallways. The group decided to split up so they could find Roxas quicker. Renji, Demyx, and Zexion were one group; and Ichigo, Renji, and Axel were the other group. Rukia and her group had been running non-stop for ages through white hallways.

"Geez! Can you slow down a bit?" Demyx exclaimed as he lagged behind Rukia and Zexion.

"We need to keep moving," Zexion replied, turning towards number IX with a serous look in his eyes. "If we stop, then the enemy might catch us. Then we'll have to waste our energy fighting," He explained.

"But what's the point if we can't use magic or summon our weapons?" Demyx pointed out. "Can we just slow down a little? My legs feel like melted jelly,"

"Quit your complaining, Demyx!" Rukia shouted at him. "Do what the espada to know we're here?" She screamed.

I grumbled as Rukia came to a sudden stop. She was painting like dog that had just run a marathon, but she had definitely felt something. Zexion caught onto her as a familiar scent wafted through the air. He gasped in disbelief; it was Roxas!

He was about to tell Rukia about it when something stopped him. In the past his nose had tricked him into thinking that it was somebody else when it was really a double or something. Zexion knew this situation and judging by how Kisuke spoke of them, they were powerful. But this time, the scent was exactly like Roxas's. He took a whiff at it again and was now one hundred percent sure it was Roxas.

"I've picked up Roxas's scent! Come, the scent leads this way!" He told them as he pointed down the hall.

The group took off running again. Demyx couldn't help but feel uneasy. There was something weird about Zexion suddenly picking up a scent in a strange place like this. He shook off the thought as they made a sharp left leading into another hallway. The feeling got stronger as they neared where Roxas was expected to be held. They soon came to a large grey door that loomed over them. Rukia carefully stepped forward, but a voice stopped her.

"Wait, it doesn't make sense that there aren't any guards," Zexion pointed out.

"You're right…" Demyx agreed glancing around their surroundings. "If they were serious about keeping Roxas out of our grasp…there would be guards crawling everywhere,"

Rukia hesitated just like Zexion and Demyx. "Can you still smell Roxas behind this door?" She asked Zexion.

Zexion nodded. Rukia drew in a shaky breath before she pushed opened the door; her eyes scanned every inch of the room carefully. Dark walls surrounded them and a small, feeble-looking figure was curled in a ball in the corner of the room. He was dressed in a black and white robe. His blonde hair hung over his exhausted blue eyes in messy strands.

"Roxas!" Demyx gasped in astonishment as he rushed towards number XIII's side.

Roxas looked up and Demyx. His eyes grew wide as Rukia and Zexion joined him. He slowly stood up, his legs trembling beneath him. He drew in his breath and faced Demyx and Zexion.

"You shouldn't have come here," He began. "Lord Aizen will have all of his espada after you in minutes,"

"We barley ran into anything on our way here, so why the espada attack us now?" Rukia wondered.

Roxas drew in his breath. "Aizen knows you're here…" He started.

"…And now you're fallen into my trap," A voice finished. "Good work, Roxas,"

With Ichigo and the others….

"…And here I thought the Castle That Never Was and Castle Oblivion were big," Axel commented as he gazed around the huge palace.

"I wonder how the espada know their way around this place," Ichigo wondered as well.

"Probably need to carry around a map," Renji joked.

The group became dead silent again. Axel wondered if Zexion and Demyx were all right. If he still couldn't summon his Chakrams, Zexion and Demyx couldn't summon their weapons either. But ever since their encounter Ulquiorra he felt that blocked feeling lift. He still never tried to summon his Chakrams, but now would be a good time. He concentrated for a couple seconds before his Chakrams appeared in his hands in a swirl of flames. Ichigo turned around and his eyes grew wide.

"Whoa-you got your powers back!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah…when I couldn't use magic I had this blocked feeling. But after our encounter with Ul-whatever, the feeling lifted. I never tried summoning them…until now," Axel explained. "Heh, now I can fight with something I'm used too,"

"Does everyone in the organization have some sort of weapon?" Renji wondered.

"Yeah, like Zexion has his Lexicon, Xaldin has his six lances-"

"Six?!" Renji exclaimed. "He carries around six lances at once?"

"Nah, he uses wind to control five of them. Imagine if he was another element," Axel replied.

"Quit the chit-chat," Ichigo decided. "If you were Aizen where would you put a prison cell?"

"Hell if I know," Renji told him. "What's weird is that we haven't seem any Arrancars, aside from Ulquiorra," He pointed out.

"You're right. Did everyone here die or something?" Ichigo joked.

"Quit the jokes," Renji told Ichigo sharply. "If they were really serious about keeping Roxas out of our reach, there would be more guards," He pointed out as he took out the map of the palace.

He carefully retraced their steps on the blueprints and put his finger on the spot where they now were. According to the map, they were only a few hallways down from the prison hold. Renji cleared his throat and put the blueprints away.

"The blueprints say we're only a few hallways away from Roxas," Renji told them. "We just need to make a left, head down the next hall, and the prison hold is the only room there," He explained.

Axel took off as soon as Renji stopped speaking. Renji called after him, but Axel was focused on getting Roxas. Ichigo and Renji took off after Axel, as he turned left into another endless hallway. Axel's chest was on fire, but he didn't care. They were so close to finding Roxas! He soon came to a grey door that was bolted shut from the inside. As exhausted as Axel was, he summoned up all of his energy and launched a HUGE fireball at the door. When the smoke cleared, the door was still standing. Axel growled under his breath; only a thick wall of spiritual pressure separated him and Roxas.

Chest heaving Axel launched another fireball at the door. Renji and Ichigo stood by Axel's side as the smoke cleared, Axel's fireballs weren't making any process.

"D*mn…how do we break this?" Axel asked in between breath.

Ichigo stepped forwards and swung his sword at full force at the door.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo yelled as a ray of blue struck the door.

Axel lit his Chakrams on fire and threw them at the door. The two attacks gnawed at the door like mice nibbling at cheese. Axel grit his teeth in determination as he threw his Chakrams at the door once more. A loud _CRASH _echoed through the hall. Axel caught his Chakrams as the think smoke cleared, reveling the empty doorway.

Axel ran inside and gazed around. He saw a miserable-looking boy sitting on the couch dressed in a black and white robe. He had spiky blonde hair that hung over his dull blue eyes. He looked up as the door blew off its hinges and hit the wall. The boy turned as Axel stormed in. The boy felt happiness fill his non-existent heart.

"Axel!" Roxas cried running over to him.

Axel's green eyes filled with at the sight of Roxas. Roxas threw his arms around Axel and held him tight. Axel was the first person who he wanted to see when he was rescued.

"Roxas! Man, you do not know what we have been through looking for you!" He exclaimed wiping a tear from his eye.

Roxas turned his head and saw Ichigo and Renji walk into the room. Roxas gave the two a confused glance.

"Oh! Right…these two are Ichigo and Renji," Axel explained. "One of Xemnas's old friends found a way to get here and these guys went with us to rescue you,"

"I thought you were dead! This mad man has been trying to get me to tell him how to destroy the organization's castle," Roxas told them. "I managed to tell him a couple of quick lies while he tried to get me to tell. He even sealed off the building to stop me from using magic," Roxas explained.

"Same, but after we ran into Ul-whatever I could suddenly use magic again. Demyx and Zexion even came to help you get outta here, got it memorized?" Axel replied.

"You guys musta had a hard time getting here," Roxas commented looking at Ichigo and Renji.

"Actually…we just walked in through the front door," Renji answered. "This place has some really crappy security if you ask me," He added with a mumble.

"…Okay," Roxas mumbled, feeling weirded out. "Now let's-wait. Where are Demyx and Zexion?" Roxas wondered.

"Right…we need to find them now," Ichigo realized.


	12. Roxas: The Traitor!

Chapter 11

Demyx's POV

The three of us freeze in our places. The man stands a few steps into the room as the door behind him closes. I don't know who he is, but I'm getting a strange feeling from him. Rukia draws her white sword and prepares to fight. Suddenly, a memory comes to my head. When I first woke up from my encounter with the hollow, Roxas told me something about a man-urgh! What is it! What did he say!

_"After we told him what happened he told us this twisted dream he had that involved that same creature and this other guy with brown hair that was dressed in black and white," He finished._

I gasp in disbelief. That man is the same guy from Xemnas's dream! Panic fills me and Zexion takes a step back. The tension in the air is so thick it makes it hard to breathe.

"Master Aizen, I have cornered the prisoners," Roxas told the man as he walked towards him.

Aizen smirks at Roxas. "Wonderful," He tells Roxas as he faces us.

"What have you done to Roxas?" I demanded as I tried to summon my Sitar, even though I know it won't work.

Surprisingly it does work. Zexion summons his Lexicon as well and prepares to fight. Rukia is still grasping her sword in both hands. Aizen chuckles to himself as he draws his sword as well.

"Didn't you know I've known what you've been doing ever since you set foot in Las Noches? I purposely didn't put any guards on duty to make you drop your guard," He begin to explain. "I thought you would split up to try to find Roxas so I had Szayel make this clone from Roxas's DNA. I need to remember to thank him later," He explained to us.

"You b*stard!" Zexion exclaimed. "Where's the real Roxas?" He demanded.

"That doesn't matter now. My Roxas will kill you where you now stand!" Aizen ordered.

The fake Roxas stepped forwards and summoned Oathkeeper; much to the surprise of Zexion and I. Rukia stood her ground as Roxas came in for the kill. He swung Oathkeeper at full force at Rukia. Rukia easily blocked it with her sword and jumped up. She swung her sword at Roxas, hoping to knock Oathkeeper out of his hands. Roxas jumped back and swung Oathkeeper at Rukia. Rukia fell backwards, dropping her sword in the process.

"Dance! Water! Dance!" I yelled out strumming a couple strings.

Roxas turned towards me as a HUGE spray of water threw him up in the air. While he was dazed and confused, Zexion opened his Lexicon and shoot a blast of lighting at Roxas. The black knocked him off his feet causing him to fall over and slam into the floor, letting go of Oathkeeper. I quickly grasped Rukia's sword and tossed it back to her.

"Thanks, Demyx," She thanked as she climbed to her feet.

"Dance! Sode No Shiroyuki!" She yelled out as small columns of ice surrounded her. "Pakurn!" She yelled as a giant blast of snow and ice shot towards Roxas.

His eyes widened in fear when he saw Rukia attack. He grabbed Oathkeeper and jumped up, avoiding the attack. I strum a few more strings make small jets of water shoot at him like knives. Roxas dodges most of them while the rest leave behind minor scratches. Much to my surprise, he attacks _me_.

He swung Oathkeeper with full force, knocking me to the ground and the breath outta me. While I lay there, trying to catch my breath, Roxas shoots a fireball at me. I quickly roll over barley missing it. I jumped up and strum a couple more strings making water nobodies pop up out of nowhere. Roxas wipes them all out in only a matter of seconds. I see Zexion shoot a blast of ice at him, freezing him in a block of ice temporarily. I think Vexen's rubbed off on Zexion a bit much, don't you agree?

"How does he have Oathkeeper?" Zexion wondered. "That doesn't make any sense…" His voice trailed off as Aizen smirked.

"Szayel also did an excellent job of re-making one of his Keyblades. Not as powerful as the real one, but close," He commented.

"Remember he's a disadvantage," Rukia pointed out. "It's three against one, plus sooner or later Ichigo and the other two will show up. That'll make it six against one, but until then it's just us,"

"Should we make a plan or something?" I wondered.

"Demyx makes a good point. If we're going to fight this fake Roxas, we need a plan," Zexion replied. "If I can make a couple clones of myself I can distract him long enough for us to pull off an offensive attack. Eventually he'll get tired, and by then Ichigo should have been able to find his way here," Zexion thought out loud.

"What if he doesn't?" Rukia wondered. She glanced back nervously as the ice that trapped Roxas began to crack.

"That's not at the top of our list of concerns right now," I reply as the ice makes another ear-splitting crack.

"I say we give Zexion's plan a try, it the only plan we've got," Rukia quickly concluded.

Right on cue, Roxas broke free of the ice. He was shivering from his icy prison and tiny bit of ice clung to his blonde hair. Roxas charged at us, anger flashing in his eyes. Roxas swings Oathkeeper at Zexion, who easily sidestepped avoiding it. I see him mutter a spell, or something, to himself before three copies of himself appeared next to him. Roxas back up and got ready to attack but the problem was, which one was the real Zexion?

The four other Zexions surrounded Roxas and one launched a fireball at him. Roxas deflected it with his Keyblade, hitting the clone. The clone let out a small yelp of pain before it disappeared in a swirl of black smoke. Roxas jumped up and swung his Keyblade wildly, hoping to hit the clone or a couple of them.

"Now Demyx!" Rukia yelled at me as she raised her sword. "Pakurn!" She yelled as she pointed her sword at Roxas, sending a blast of ice at him.

The blast of ice threw Roxas across the room and slammed him into a wall. While he struggled to get up, I quickly strummed a couple string on my Sitar making small streams of water slash against his skin. Roxas screamed out in pain as blood begin to pour from his wounds. I smirked as the fake Roxas dropped dead.

I wanted to let out a victory yell, but before I heard a scream of agony echo off the walls. I turned and saw Zexion shoot across the room and slam into a wall, coughing up blood. I turned around and saw Aizen standing there, his hand smoking. I saw a red beam charge begin to charge up in his hand as Zexion's eyes widened in fear. I jumped in front of him and gripped my Sitar tightly. Aizen shot the beam at me as I shut my eyes and waited for pain.

I waited for the world to spin me around violently and throw me against the wall. I heard a loud BOOM echo off the room's walls a couple moments later. I opened my eyes and saw Ichigo standing in front of me, his sword in hand. I turned around and rushed to Zexion's side, only to find Axel and Roxas there was well.

"Are you okay, Zexion?" Axel wondered the concern in his voice clear.

Zexion lifted his head up, with looked as if it took a lot of effort. "Yeah…don't worry about me," He replied.

"Are you sure? Can you stand up?" I wondered.

Zexion slowly stood up he had to lean against the wall support, but he could do it. He raised a hand above his head as he became cloaked in a light green light for a second before he summoned his Lexicon again. A lot of his minor wounds were now gone and the large gash on his arm had stopped bleeding.

While we were distracted, the fake Roxas charges at us again anger flashing in his eyes. He swings Oathkeeper at the real Roxas, who blocked it with Oblivion easily. The real Roxas swung Oblivion at the fake Roxas knocking him clean off his feet. The fake Roxas quickly climbed to his feet as disappeared in a blur. The real Roxas gasped as the fake Roxas appeared behind him landing a hard hit on him with Oathkeeper. Roxas coughed up blood and stared at the fake Roxas with wide eyes, Ichigo and Axel as well.

"Wha-How could he have the abilities of a soul reaper and the Keyblade? That's impossible!" Axel exclaimed.

"No…" Roxas corrected as he climbed to his feet. "His Keyblade is only a sham, not even close to matching the keyblade's true power. He may have a soul reaper's abilities, but I have the real Keyblade!" He roared out angrily, as he charged at the fake Roxas.


	13. Nobodies Vs Arrancars: The Final Battle!

Chapter 12:

Normal POV

The real Roxas charged at the fake Roxas, who stood there smirking. He flash-stepped behind the real Roxas and tried to swing Oathkeeper at him. Roxas whirled around and landed a clean blow with Oblivion and Oathkeeper. The fake Roxas stood his ground and lunged at the real Roxas once more. The real Roxas swung Oathkeeper at him, striking him hard on the back. The fake Roxas turned around and swung Oathkeeper at him only to hit air as the real Roxas ran in back of him as swung Oblivion at him, throwing him across the room.

While Roxas was busy fighting his clone, Ichigo and Axel dealt with Aizen. Ichigo swung his humongous sword at Aizen, who easily dodged his attack. Axel threw one of his Chakrams at Aizen, who jumped up avoiding the attack. While in mid-air Axel threw his other Chakram at Aizen, which got a good hit on his arm. Taking no notice of his wound, he swung his sword at Ichigo who met match with it. Aizen swung his sword at Ichigo again but he met match with it once more.

Axel lit his Chakrams ablaze and threw them at Aizen. Aizen had barely enough time to turn his head slightly and duck low, avoiding the blazing Chakrams. Axel caught his Chakrams as Ichigo attempted to swing his sword at Aizen once more. Aizen flash-stepped next to Axel and swung his sword at Axel. Axel tried to dodge but Aizen was too swift, the blade slashed against his arm. Axel dropped one of his Chakrams and gripped his injured arm. While defenseless, a small red dot began to charge up in the palm of Aizen's hand.

"Cero," Aizen whispered as he fried the red beam at Axel.

Suddenly, Axel saw the room zoom past him in a blur. He turned around and saw Rukia standing behind him, holding onto the hood of his coat. Axel smiled at her as he stood up again.

"Thanks, I owe ya one, Rukia," Axel thanked.

"No problem, once we finish this you can re-pay me," Rukia replied.

**Roxas's POV**

I was still dealing with my annoying double. The fake Roxas was covered in scratches as his trip across the room. He swung his Keyblade at me, hoping to draw blood. I dodged and swung Oblivion at the fake Roxas. He whirled around and met match me as he held out his hand as a red dot began building up in his hand.

_Crap! _I thought as I jumped up, avoiding the attack.

I flipped in mid-air and dove at the fake Roxas. I caught him off guard and swung Oblivion at his head, knocking him to the ground. The fake Roxas stood up and wiped the blood off his chin. He began to charge at me and disappeared before my eyes. I turned around and scanned the room for him. Losing sight of him was dangerous because if had the abilities of these people then he could catch me off guard and-

"Over here!" A voice called.

Before I had the chance to turn around I felt some slam into my back almost knocking me over. Before I could react, again I saw Roxas flash in front of me and smack me with Oathkeeper. I fell backwards and landed hard on the floor. I turned my head to the side and coughed up blood. I felt cool metal brush against my throat; I looked up and saw the fake Roxas standing above with his Keyblade against my throat. He had a creepy smirk on his face and his blue eyes were filled with the thought of killing (In fact I think I'm going to have nightmares about this for MONTHS, if I live that is).

"Good luck in hell!" He yelled at me as he swung Oathkeeper at my throat.

I shut my eyes as his Keyblade struck my throat. I felt myself drift away as if I was dead. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the floor beside Zexion. I stood up shakily beside him and examined the fake Roxas. Ice had crept up his arm and legs, keeping him frozen in place.

"Thanks Zexion," I told him. "What do you plan on doing now?" I asked him as I gripped Oblivion's handle.

"Attack!" Zexion replied shooting a fireball at the fake Roxas.

The fake Roxas could only gasp in horror before the fireball landed a direct hit on him. He screamed out in pain and held onto the side of his face with his free hand. I charged at him and swung my Keyblade at him. He held up his free hand and tried to shoot a weak red beam at me. I easily sidestepped to the left avoiding it and landed a hard hit on the fake Roxas's shoulder. He yelled out in pain once more as the ice around his legs cracked and broke. The fake Roxas fell over clutching his, now bleeding shoulder.

He looked like he was in terrible condition. Charcoal black splotches covered the left side of his face and he had dried blood all over his shoulder. Scratches also decorated him from head to toe. His blue eyes were filled with rage and pain from his wounds.

"You, Roxas, are going to die here and now along with your pathetic friends!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as became cloaked in a pale white light.

Aizen smirked as a HUGE explosion shook the room. The group could only gasp in horror as the fake Roxas formed into the most gruesome monster they had laid their eyes upon. It was white with black burn marks on the left side of its face and at least twelve feet tall! Its blood-red eyes stared at us angrily and a long jet-black stripe ran from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. He tossed his head back and let out an ear-splitting howl.

Aizen smirked at the monster before he turned back to us. "Good luck," He told us before he disappeared.

Ichigo charged at the monster and swung his sword at it, sending a blue shock wave at it. He monster roared before it shot a red beam at Ichigo. Ichigo gasped as he disappeared and re-appeared beside Rukia. Rukia quickly drew her sword and ran into front of the beast.

"Dance Sode No Shiroyuki!" She yelled as a circle of white appeared beneath the monster. "Tsukishiro!" She yelled.

The monster didn't have a chance to do anything as ice began to creep up its leg. It tried to wiggle free of the ice, but it quickly crept up its arms and neck. The monster let out another loud howl before it became completely incased in a column of ice. The ice stood still for a few moments before it cracked and broke apart into billions of pieces. Rukia smirked but her joy didn't last long. The monster suddenly re-appeared right before our eyes!

"What?" Rukia screamed. "I thought that Tsukishiro took care of it!" She exclaimed.

"I guess it didn't," Ichigo agreed in shock as well.

I saw Demyx back up in fear, remembering his last encounter with a hollow. I saw Axel and Zexion were also looking a bit scared, I can understand why. Out of all of the missions I've went on, I've never encountered anything like this. I took a step back as it howled once more before it attacked me. It swung its mighty tail at me; I jumped up barely missing it. I jumped up and swung Oblivion at its chest. The monster roared out in pain as it swiped at me with its tail again, throwing me against the wall. I chocked up a mouthful of blood as the monster wrapped its tail around my body and squeezes it tight.

I try to free myself from its death grip, but its tail crushed me with what feels like a ton! Draws in a simple breath is getting harder and harder as it continues to constrict me. I start to black out as the monster smirked at me, reveling its gruesome pointed teeth. I see a blur of blue slice through the tail as the world turns black and I faint.

* * *

"Roxas, are you okay?" A voice asks me.

I see the blurry outline of Axel I begin to stir. It feels like there's a lead weight on my chest as everything continues to clear up. Axel and Demyx are beside with concerned expressions on their faces. One of the sleeves of Demyx's coat is ripped off and Axel has dried blood all over his shoulder.

"Yeah…" I replied just talking hurts my chest. "What's going on?"

"We're hitting at it with everything we've got," Axel answered. "Ice isn't doing a thing, so Rukia is, more or less, useless. Ichigo and Renji are using Bankai and trying to weaken it. We're not making good progress, we're down by one and that had lead us to a disadvantage," He explained.

I slowly sit up as Ichigo dodged a red beam and slashed it the monster with his, now black, sword. The monster tried to slash at him with its large claws, but Ichigo disappears and re-appears a couple yards away. Renji swings his sword, which is now a giant wooden snake, and sends the giant snake diving for the monster. The snake fires a red beam at the snake as the monster spits a red beam at Renji's sword as well. The attacks met match before a huge explosion shook the room.

When the smoke cleared the monster still stood up tall. Ichigo disappeared and re-appeared behind him and slashed his sword across his back. The monster whirled around as Ichigo disappeared and re-appeared in front of him and proceeded to swing his sword at him again. The monster turned and swung its mighty tail at Ichigo, throwing him against the wall. The monster wrapped its tail around Ichigo, making him drop his sword.

"Ichigo!" Renji cried as he swung his sword at the monster.

The giant snake tried to wrap around the giant hollow, but the hollow used its claws like a sword, cutting through his sword. Wooden pieces of his sword scatter everywhere, but then they quickly re-form into a giant wooden snake once more. The monster is, literally, squeezing the life out of Ichigo who lay lifeless in its tail.

Rukia growls under her breath before she jumps up and slashes straight through the monster's tail. Axel grabs Ichigo and runs back to us. Renji used his wooden snake to shield us from the hollow's dangerous attacks. Ichigo moans as he catches his breath and opens his eyes. He glances around, dazed, before he meets Rukia's eyes.

"Rukia? Did we defeat it yet?" Ichigo wondered.

"Not yet," Rukia sighed. "I cut off a bit of its tail, but we're far from defeating it. We're toast," She mumbles in fear.

"Not yet!" I yelled at her. "We're still standing and fighting! If we can still fight, we're not finished yet!"

"Face it, Roxas. You and Ichigo are wounded and I can't fight to save my life," Demyx pointed out.

"I don't care! I'm taking this thing out!" I yelled summoning Oathkeeper and Oblivion. "I started this mess and I'll clean it up!"

I was dead tired and my voice was cracked. Yeah, I'm screwed but at least I'll die trying to save my friends. I take a step towards the monster before Axel puts a hand on my shoulder stopping me. I stare into his eyes as a flood of memories washes over me. Eating ice-cream together, fighting heartless side-by-side, we share so many memories its almost impossible to count them. I try to look away from his teal eyes as guilt washes over me.

"Roxas…good luck. If you die fighting this thing, I'll defeat it and avenge you," He tells me. "I'll be by your die, even at death,"

I may not be able to feel, but I can feel tears running down my face. I throw my arms around Axel and hug him tight. My mentor and my best friend…this may be the last time I see him. I wipe away the tears from my eyes and charge at the giant hollow, praying for my life. Let's hope I didn't make the biggest mistake of my life.

I charged at the hollow, gripping Oathkeeper and Oblivion tightly. I jumped up and swing both of my keyblades at the massive beast. The hollow swats me away with the tiny stub of its tail, knocking me to the ground. I flipped in mid air, landed on my feet before I jumped up again, and slashed at its hollow mask with Oblivion. The creature screamed out in agony as red flowed from its face. I jumped off its shoulder shot a huge fireball at it as I fell to the ground.

The creature screamed out in even more pain as I landed a few yards away from it. I could easily beat this thing. I run up to the beast again jump up as it tried to swing its massive tail at me. I blocked its attack by making an X with my keyblades. I let myself fall to the ground and shot a strong beam of lighting at it. The giant hollows brushes off the lighting as if it were dust and fires a HUGE red beam at me.

I tried to block the blast with my keyblades, but the force was too strong. It blew me off my feet and I rolled head over heels until it hit the wall. I lay there, trying to catch my breath, when a giant hand grabs me and lifts me up. Its fingers curl around my body and begin to literally squeeze the life out of me! I try to break free, but it just squeezes harder when it feels my weak attempt to escape. I gasp for breath as I wriggle my arm out of its grasp.

I slash at one of its fingers, making the hollow release its grip on me. I fall to the ground painting heavily on the floor. The hollow growls at me before it opens its mouth. I muttered a curse under my breath before it fired cero at me. I climb to my feet and run around the room, the deadly red beam hot on my heels. I can feel sweat dripping down my temples and my legs want to collapse from all the running and jumping I've been doing, but I keep moving.

I turn around and jump up, praying this wasn't going to be a huge mistake. I slash at the hollow's face with both of my keyblades, making an X in the middle of its face (like Saix's). The hollow roared loudly before it slashed at me with its massive hand. I grip my shoulder as I begin to fall to the ground. The creature scream out in agony again before it fires cero, straight at me. I shut my eyes tightly as pain shoots through my body. I slam hard onto the ground coughing up blood. I can feel blood running down my shoulder, but I try to ignore the pain as I climb to my feet. I'm so dizzy I nearly fall over again.

"Roxas! You can't continue to fight that hollow like that!" Demyx yelled, concern in his voice. "If you do you'll get killed!"

I know what he means; he was the one who was nearly killed by one. I grip my keyblades tighter, feeling reassured when I hold the two keys.

"I know! I started this mess and I'll fix it, even if it costs me my life!" I screamed back as I charged at the hollow again.

The hollow fired another cero at me, but I dodged and jumped up. I try to stab it with Oathkeeper, but it slaps me away from its body. I flip in mid-air and jump off the ground again. I slashed at the hollow's shoulder, but I was so weak, it barely made a scratch. I hollow grabbed my limp body in mid-air and chucked me against a wall. I let myself fall to the ground, moaning in pain. I just want to lie down and go to sleep…

I snap out of my two-second nap as I see the hollow beginning to fire another cero at me. I stand up and draw in my breath as I began to gather up my remaining strength. Axel is still on my mind as I feel my body growing lighter and I block out the pain from my wounds. I can only feel my keyblades' power flowing through my veins. My eyes open as the hollow fires cero at me, the beam now dark red.

"Roxas!" Axel lets out a shrill, frightened shriek.

I hold up Oathkeeper and Oblivion in an X, blocking cero. I feel powerful, like a god. I push back with all of my might making the beam of cero bounce off my keyblades and fire back at the hollow. The hollow lets out a terrified scream as the beam hits its chest. I jump up and slash at the hollow's body with my keyblades multiple times making dark red liquid flow down its body in thick streams. I smirk as I feel even more power in my veins.

I hold my keyblades to the ceiling as a small orange dot begins to form between them. The hollow charges at me again, bloodlust in its eyes, ready to kill. I jump up, the memory of Axel and I eating ice cream in my head, and fire the giant fireball at the beast. The hollow lets out one last, terrified shriek, as if yelling out, "I don't want to go to hell!" Before it fades away. I feel my eyes beginning to close as the power fades from my veins.

I fall to the ground, utterly weak and exhausted. My keyblades dissappear in a flash of white light as Axel rushes to my side. I paint heavil and try to focus on his face, but everything I blurring into one big ball. Ichigo, Rukia, and Axel yelling fractically to the other is the last thing I see before everything goes black and numb.

**Author: Hope you enjoyed! I spent a lot of time typing this chapter, and I had fun typing it too! Thanks for all your kind reviews and for all the favs! **

**~yukihikari99**


	14. One Last Request

Chapter 13:

Roxas's POV

The Castle That Never Was-unknown time and date

I slept for the longest time after my fight. I would wake up every now and then, not knowing what was going on or anything. When I woke up the first time, I had no clue where I was. My whole body ached with pain and my head was fuzzy. I saw two figures talking above me, but I couldn't tell who they were. I could make out a little bit of they're conversation, but I couldn't understand it.

"The hollow took that much out of him?" One voice asked.

"Yes, but the hollow…so it's possible his condition might get even worse than it is already," The second voice explained, a girl I think.

"Is Roxas…gonna be okay?" I didn't hear the answer. I fell asleep again after that.

* * *

I had some pretty strange dreams after that. I dreamt of me, Axel, Ichigo and Rukia getting attacked by mutant bunnies. Some wanted to kill us, three wanted our swords, and the rest were begging to us to adopt them. I ignored most of them, until one jumped up on my shoulder and bit my ear.

I woke up again, who knows how much later, feeling worse than before. I felt something really cold on my buring forehead and I had an odd taste in my mouth. I saw another human shape with a blur of red on his head (hey that rhymes), Axel. He's shaking his head and muttering to himself, about me I guess. I start shivering as I begin to black out again. Axel puts a hand on my chest and warmth begins to spread through my body, ceaseing my shivers. I fall back asleep, literally, warmed by Axel's presence.

* * *

The third time I woke up for good. I was alone in a white-grey room, still feeling like a piece of cold chicken that's been rotting in the freezer for weeks on end. Everything was still blurry and my head hurts. I didn't know how long I was asleep; could've been a few days or a few weeks. Time flies when you're unconscious. I groan as I hear the door creak open. A wave a pain rushes through my head as the annoying noise fills the air. Everything seems to clear when I see Axel walk into the room.

He's dressed in an over-sized red t-shirt and baggy black pants. His hair isn't spiked up like it normally is and it's tangled, making him look like Jareth, as Demyx would say.

"Rise and shine sleepyhead," He jokes as he takes and seat next to me.

"What happened?" I croaked, my throat begging for water.

"You passed out after you kicked that hollow's butt. We took you back here and patched you up. After being in that place for so long, the spiritual pressure mixed in with your magic and you developed a fever," Axel explained putting his hand on my forehead. "You should've seen yourself, you had a one hundred and two fever yesterday. But you feel pretty cool now,"

"Where are…Ichigo and everyone? How long have I been out?" I wondered.

"Whoa! Stop throwing questions at me like that!" Axel held his hands up. "Ichigo and his gang are still here, they wanted to make sure you were alright before they left. You've also been out for…nearly a week," He finished explaining. "And dang, you broke my sleeping record," He added with a mumble.

I slowly sat up, my body aching. I was no longer dressed in my Arrancar clothes; I was dressed in my baggy black pants and black sleeveless shirt. My shoulder was tightly wrapped up in bandages and I was shivering. Axel tossed me an over-sized sweatshirt and I threw over my clothes. Oh and just to tell you, the longest time Axel slept was from 11:00 pm to 4:00 pm the next day. Oh yeah, I just SHREDDED his record effortlessly.

"You think you can walk?" Axel wondered as he stood up.

I slowly climbed out of bed and let my feet touch the floor. I stood up and my head immediately began to spin. I almost fell over, but Axel caught me and I regained my balance. I tried to walk a few more steps, but my head spun once more. I leaned against the door frame to keep myself from falling.

"Don't push yourself," Axel urged. "If you don't feel like walking, you can just stay in bed all day,"

"No, I'm fine," I insisted.

Axel shook his head and I dragged myself a couple more steps. Axel let me lean against him for support as we walked towards the grey room, where Ichigo and his friends were asleep on the couches and chairs, and Renji was snoring loudly. Well, except for Rukia, she was in a deep conversation with Zexion. Zexion looked almost like a trouble teen with his unnaturally messy hair and baggy sleepwear on.

"Hey Roxas, sleep well?" Rukia joked.

"My head feels like it was taken off my shoulders, filled with pudding, thrown in the dryer, and rolled down a hill," I replied getting a headache just from saying it.

Zexion gave me a strange look. "Not the response I was excepting…but okay," He muttered.

The room spun again and I held onto Axel for support. Ichigo began to stir and growled in annoyance at Renji's snoring.

"Shut up!" He yelled, throwing his pillow at him. "Ever heard of anti-snoring pills?"

Renji chucked Ichigo's pillow back. Renji sat up and ran his fingers through his long unbrushed red hair and there was drool on the corner of his mouth.

"If you want me to stop snoring than you stop yelling at me every d*mn morning!" Renji screamed back.

Axel walks away from the commotion, much to my relief. As we walk away from the Grey Area, I realize that Ichigo'sgoal is complete. I look at the ground sadly, I knew he has to leave sooner of later. I didn't really know him but he saved me from what's-his-face, being unconscious is also being on amnesia: you can't remember a thing. He went through all of that trouble to save me, and he barely knew me. I sign and look at the ground, my non-existent heart filling with sadness.

"You alright, Rox?" Axel wondered.

"When does Ichigo have to leave? I need to do something for him," I replied.

"Kisuke wants him back later today at the latest. Sorry bud," Axel shared our 'sadness'

I heard footsteps scurrying after us. I turned and saw Rukia, already fully dressed in her black kimono, hurrying towards us. She stopped, took a couple seconds to catch her breath, and looked up to meet Axel's eyes. Dang, she was shirt. Well, pretty much everyone is short compared to Axel, aside from the taller members.

"I'm sorry, but we have to leave immediantly. We've already closed the portal and we have to get back to Karakura town," Rukia explained, her violent eyes filled with sadness. Much to my surprise, Axel smirked.

"Did you re-open to portal to your world yet?" He asked.

"No, why?" Rukia gave Axel a puzzled look.

"I want to have a match-you and Ichigo vs Roxas and I," Axel smirked. "I want to have some fun before you leave,"

**Author: Almost a month, huh? Well, I would've gotten this up sooner but #1, my motivation ditched me and went to Bermuda. #2, I had a couple parties to go to, I went away for four days...and a bunch of other stuff came up. **

**I'm REALLY sorry for the short chapter, I've been trying to think of how this should end for WEEKS. I'm terrible at endings, plus I need to type the last chapter to Ansem's Revenge and Guardian Angel. But, I promise the next chapter will be longer and more exciting...and maybe sooner ^_^' Thanks for all your reviews and favs...yadda, yadda, yadda, make sure Gin doesn't get you on the way out...annnnd check out some of my other stories, and if you haven't seen 'How to Train Your Dragon' GO. SEE. IT. NOW. Hope you enjoyed :D**

**~yukihikari99**


	15. The Final Brawl

Chapter 14

Roxas's POV

_The World That Never Was- Same day_

Because of Axel's request, we stood in front of Memory's Skyscraper along with Ichigo and Rukia. Mr. Pineapple head (I can't remember his name) stood on the sidelines along with the rest of the organization. Whenever some of us want a fight, we would all gather and place our bets on who would win. Saix was probably betting all his munny on Ichigo and Rukia. I gripped Oathkeeper and Oblivion as Axel twirled his Chakrams."Everyone ready?" Mr. Pineapple head asked. "Begin!"

That's when my adrenaline started pumping. Ichigo drew his sword and tried to slash at me with it, but I quickly dodged and countered by swinging Oathkeeper at him. Ichigo quickly sidestepped and swung his sword at me, but I jumped away and shot a fireball at him. Ichigo blocked it with his giant sword and I swung my keyblades at him, catching him off guard. I jumped in the air and shot a blot of lighting at him. Ichigo smirked and jumped back a couple feet, the blot missing him by a matter of feet.

Without warning, something slammed hard into my back. I felt the wind get knocked out of me as I fell to the ground. I flipped in mid-air, landing on my feet and re-filling my lungs with oxygen. Rukia landed gracefully her white sword shimmering. Her joy didn't last long; Axel threw one of his blazing Chakrams at her. Rukia disappeared for a moment before re-appearing a couple feet away from Axel.

"Dance! Sode no Skiroyuki!" She yelled out as tiny snowflakes gathered around her sword's blade. "Pakurn!"

Out of nowhere, a HUGE blast of snow shot towards Axel. Axel's Chakrams lit up in an orange glow as he blocked Rukia's attack. Ichigo tried to jump behind Axel and surprise him but I made an X with my keyblades, blocking his sword. Ichigo smirked and jumped back a couple feet before he swung his massive sword at me.

"Getsuga Tensho!" He yelled as the blade of his sword glowed blue.

His sword sent out a blue shock wave that I easily dodged before countering with a swing from Oblivion. Ichigo knocked away Oblivion as if it were a toothpick (which it probably was) and slashed his sword at me again. I jumped away as axel shot a giant fireball at Ichigo. Ichigo jumped up and stood in mid-air as Rukia held up her sword. She didn't try to swing it; instead, the ground under us glowed white.

"Kootta kyoofu," She whispered (Author: That's Japanese for frozen terror).

I literally froze when an icy feeling gripped me. I looked down as ice began to creep up my legs. I tried to move my legs, but a thick sheet of ice held both of them in place. I stabbed at the ice with Oathkeeper, hoping to shatter it, but no luck. I gulped as the ice crept further up my body. Determined, Axel shot a fireball at the ground. The ice quickly melted into a puddle of water and burnt the soles of my feet in the process. I shook off the pins and needles feeling and jumped into the air before slashing at Ichigo.

Ichigo's brown eyes grew wide in shock. He pushed back with all of his strength, knocking me back to the ground. He sent out another blue shockwave, throwing me off my feet. Before I could react he swung his sword at me again, but I blocked it with my keyblades while lying on the ground. I jumped up and kicked him in the ribs, knocking the breath out of him in an _**OOF! **_I ran up to him and attempted to swing Oathkeeper and Oblivion at him. Ichigo blocked my swift attack and jumped back.

Without warning, Ichigo dropped his sword and gripped the sides of his head. Rukia's eyes filled with terror as she gripped her sword. What was going on with him? Ichigo's face was twisted with pain and confusion as took a step back.

"No! This isn't a real fight!" He yelled.

Another voice came from Ichigo's lips. A sharp, metallic voice that sent shivers down my spine.

"Come on, I wanna have some fun too," It tried to convince Ichigo. "Even in Hueco Mundo you didn't want me to help you. Come on, I just want to play with the kid,"

"Shut up, Hichigo!" Ichigo screamed in his normal voice. "If I let you out, you're going to tear this whole world apart!"

"Hichigo? Rukia, w-what's going on?" Axel asked, almost shaking.

"Ichigo's inner hollow-Hichigo-he wants to take control of Ichigo's body to fight. If that happens, we're all screwed," Rukia explained.

"How do we stop him fr-" Roxas stopped dead.

"Too late," The metallic voice sneered-Hichigo's voice.

Ichigo no longer looked like himself. His hair and skin had turned snow white and his eyes were gold. Not the shiny money gold, but the type of gold on a bullet. Hichigo sneered and licked his lip with his blue tongue.

"That's more like it!" He screamed as reshi engulfed him.

Hichigo emerged a few minutes later completely dressed in black. He held out his sword, which now had a completely black blade. I gripped Oathkeeper and Oblivion so hard that I thought my hands might bleed. Hichigo disappeared for a couple of seconds before re-appearing in front of Rukia. Rukia held up her sword Hichigo met match with it, smirking evilly. Hichigo jumped away and slashed his sword at Rukia; she dodged quickly barely missing the sword. Hichigo slashed at her again, but Rukia jumped back as her sword began to glow white.

"Tsukishiro!" She yelled out as the ground under Hichigo began to glow.

Hichigo disappeared as ice shot up from the ground, making a HUGE column of ice. The column stood tall before it collapsed and shattered. Hichigo re-appeared and swung his black sword at Rukia, making a clean cut on her arm and knocking her to the ground. Hichigo raised his sword, ready to deliver the final blow to Rukia. Rukia swung her sword, meeting match with Hichigo's. I could see how much pain she was in by looking in her violet eyes. Hichigo jumped above her and shot a HUGE red beam at Rukia, who cowered in fear and waited for her life to end.

Axel quickly jumped in front of Rukia and held up his Chakrams, blazing with fire. Axel blocked the beam and threw one of his fiery Chakrams at Hichigo. Much to Axel's surprise, Hichigo caught the Chakram without flinching from the flames. Before Axel could react, Hichigo disappeared and re-appeared behind Axel, slashing at his shoulder with _Axel's _Chakram. Axel roared in pain and gripped his shoulder as Hichigo swung his sword at Axel.

I knocked his sword away with Oathkeeper and attempted to slash at him. Hichigo blocked my Keyblade with Axel's Chakram and weaved it through my Keyblade. He yanked away the Chakram, throwing Oathkeeper with it too across the battlefield. Now weaponless, I tried to slash at him with Oblivion but Hichigo dodged easily. I kicked, but he dodged it easily. I swung Oblivion at Hichigo, landing a good-sized cut on his arm. For a second, I saw Ichigo's orange hair and brown eyes filled with pain before he turned back into Hichigo.

"Roxas why-" I heard Ichigo's voice as he gripped his bleeding arm. Hichigo shook his head, trying block Ichigo from re-claiming his body. "You little brat! You're going to pay for that!" Hichigo screamed at me with his metallic voice.

Deep down, I still knew this was Ichigo's body. I was battling my own ally, well not technically. I was fighting his inner hollow, but they shared the same body, but Hichigo was like the darkness the engulfed people when they became heartless. As much as I considered Ichigo my friend, I had to fight this…thing.

"Ichigo, I know you can take him!" I shouted loudly.

"I'm not that damned brat!" Hichigo screamed as he gripped the sides of his head. "Roxas, Axel…help," Ichigo's voice chocked out.

"You can take him Ichigo, I know you can," Axel joined in. "I've seen your power, you're stronger than him,"

"I'm not Ichigo!" Hichigo continued to scream. "Get that through your thick skulls already!"

"We know you're not Ichigo, but the real Ichigo's in there somewhere!" Rukia came forward too. "Ichigo, don't let him completely take over!"

**Ichigo's POV**

"…_Don't let him take over!" _

"Rukia?" I wondered. "Rukia, is that you?" I shouted.

"We're not done yet!" Hichigo demanded, charging at me again.

Hichigo swung his sword at me, but I jumped away and met match with his sword. Hichigo growled in annoyance as he swung his sword at me again, but I didn't have time to dodge. The blade slashed against my skin, making a nasty cut on my arm. Ignoring the pain, I swung my sword at Hichigo but he jumped away, smirking that creepy smile that reminded me of gothic clowns like Gin. Hichigo fired a cero at me, but I flash-stepped behind him and swung my sword at him once more. Hichigo whirled around and met match with my sword.

Hichigo kicked me in the gut, knocking me down. Hichigo tried to stab his sword into my shoulder but I knocked it away with my sword and jumped to my feet in mid-air. I couldn't lose this, not when my friends' lives were at stake. Axel, Roxas, Rukia, and Renji…I won't lose. Hichigo landed a hard roundhouse kick on my side, making me wince in pain. I swung my sword at him, aiming for his chest. Hichigo saw right through me and fired s cero. At, literally, point black.

My whole body filled with pain after that. The blue buildings flew past me as I shot through the air. I slammed into the side of a building, making more pain course through my veins. I hacked up mouthfuls of blood as Hichigo walked on the air to approach me, to make the finishing blow. I tried to stand but my body was so overcome with pain, I collapsed. I saw Hichigo's ugly grin reflect off his sword before he swung the sword at me, ready to take away my life.

"You're gonna give up that easily?"

I glanced up and saw Roxas holding his keyblades in an X, blocking Hichigo's sword. Hichigo's eyes were filled with shock and confusion as Roxas swung the black Keyblade at Hichigo, landing a nasty cut on his side. The red liquid stained Hichigo's white clothes as Rukia and Axel approached.

"What? How are you here? It's not possible!" Hichigo shouted, backing up into a wall.

"Damn straight it's possible," Renji smirked as he approached too.

Come to think of it, how the heck are Roxas and Axel walking on air when they're not even Soul Reapers? I stood up too, ignoring that pain and stumbled over to where we had all cornered Hichigo. His golden eyes were filled with fear as I held onto my sword tightly. Now this was where everything became a little bit of a blur, so I'll give you a basic idea of what happened:

Ever played don't let the balloon touch the ground? We played don't let Hichigo touch the ground. I stabbed my sword into his shoulder as threw him up in the air. Before he had a chance to react, Rukia appeared behind him and shot a powerful beam of ice and snow at him, shooting him away from her a 200 hundred miles an hour. Axel threw his Chakrams at Hichigo, knocking him to the ground. Roxas slashed at Hichigo with both of his Keyblades, throwing him up in the air again. Renji grabbed Hichigo's shirt and did a good old-fashioned-Renji-style kido. Hichigo gasped his disbelief as I swung my sword at him one last time, landing a wound on his shoulder.

I don't really know what happened after that. All I remember is collapsing and falling down, the ground rushing up to greet me…then nothing but black.

"Hey, Ichigo? You okay?"

I opened my eyes and met the sea-green eyes of Demyx. My arm was over his shoulder and Renji and Rukia stood in front of him. I was exhausted and sleepy. Demyx handed me off to Renji; who carefully put my arm over his shoulder. I gave Demyx a thankful smile and he flashed me his goofy grin.

"Thanks for everything, we owe you a lot," Rukia bowed respectfully.

"No, thank you for you assistance," Xemnas told us as he walked over, Saix beside him. "Without your help, we would have never gotten Roxas back. Send Kisuke my thanks," He said, trying to keep his thank-you short. Thank go it was short.

"We will, don't worry," Rukia assured.

Saix sighed deeply. "As much as I hate saying this, I underestimated you, Ichigo. I thought you were some inexperienced kid, but I have to say you're pretty good with that sword of yours. I'm sorry, as I hate saying this," Saix said.

"So you were the guy that said I was only a kid?" I confirmed.

"No, that was Luxord," Axel chimed in. "Anyway, nice knowing you Ichigo," He said.

"Thanks for rescuing me," Roxas cut in. "Will we ever meet again?"

"Hopefully, Kisuke will figure out one way or another," Rukia took out a silver box and threw it up in the air. She drew her sword and cut the box in half in mid-air, making the box flash brightly. I shut my eyes tightly, not risking my eyesight. When I opened them, a portal was open and Karakura town was in view.

"That's the town you live in? Nice place," Demyx complimented.

After a couple more minutes of thank-yous and good-byes, we finally stepped through the portal. As the portal began to close, one last though crossed my mind.

"Hey, Axel, Roxas!" I called out.

Axel and Roxas looked up surprised my call and saddened by my departure.

"I have one last request: kick Luxord's ass for me, will ya?" I winked at them as the portal closed.

"Will do!" Axel and Roxas promised as Luxord's mouth dropped open. Revenge is sweet.

**Author: I'm SOOO sorry it took me so long to get this up! I was originally going to put this with chapter 13, but then my motivation ditched me, again. I enjoyed typing this and I just finished typing it! Thank you weekends. The next chapter won't be posted for a while because of end-of-the-year-schoolwork, eye doctor appointments (I just got glasses), and whatnot. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**~yukihikari99**


	16. Epilogue

**Thank you to archsage328 for suggesting to add Ichigo's thoughts at the end.**

* * *

Epilogue

Roxas's POV

I lay in my bed nearly a week later, completely lost in my thoughts. Axel and I had pulled the GREATEST prank on Luxord, with the help of Xigbar and Demyx. We gave him a bottle of rum and put a sleeping potion in it that we stole from Vexen's lab (it wasn't easy let me tell you. He writes all of the labels in Latin so no would bother to read them or try to figure out what they were. But we printed out the Latin alphabet and figured it out. Take that ;P) and hung him upside down from the ceiling in the Hall of Empty Melodies. When he woke up, we said we wouldn't let him down until he admitted how much he doubted Ichigo and until he told us where he gets all his rum (from some pirate named Jack Sparrow or something like that)…in front of the whole organization. Zexion was laughing so hard it was almost scary.

I rolled onto my side and stared at Kingdom Hearts through my window. I missed Ichigo and his friends; they added something different to our un-changing daily routine. Now everything was back to normal it was almost strange. I pushed away all thoughts of Ichigo from my mind and fell asleep to the sound of Demyx strumming his sitar to a sad, mysterious tune. Now you why we called him "The Melodious Nocturne."

I wake up the next morning and go through my morning without talking to anyone, not even Axel. I received my mission: a simple collecting hearts mission in Twilight Town. I quickly prepared myself and headed off. Not even complaing to Saix about how easy this mission was.

The mission went by quickly. Not a single heartless was a challenge, well except for one that kept running around in circles but I killed it after cornering it. As I headed back to the castle, I heard laughter. I turned and saw the same three kids I always see, laughing and eating ice cream together. The blonde one was coated in bruises and was thanking his two companions for saving him from some jerk. The brunette girl smiled at him and put an arm around his shoulder as they continued to walk down the road.

The sight pained my non-existent heart. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I ran away from the teens and ran into the underground tunnels. I was supposed to RTC, but I didn't want to go back. I didn't want anyone to see my depression, especially Demyx; he hates it when people are sad. I sit alone in the dark tunnels tears slowly running down my face.

I know I'm not supposed to feel, but I feel depressed right now. I feel like there is something inside me that can feel. I feel awkward just missing Ichigo. I barely knew him but he saved me from the espada or whatever. I heard footsteps and quickly pulled my hood over my head. I stopped sobbing and prayed that I would blend into the darkness. I saw the outline of a tall figure stand in the entrance way to the tunnel. I pressed myself against the column and prayed he didn't see me.

"Roxas? C'mon, I know you're in here," It was Axel.

I pulled my knees to my chest as I heard his footsteps approach. He pulled me to my feet as my hood fell off my head, revealing my tear-stained face. Axel raised an eyebrow in confusion as I turned my back to him.

"Where you…crying?" He wondered.

"Yeah…" I sniffled.

"How 'bout we get some ice cream? It's on me, Demyx even tagged along," Axel insisted.

I nodded and followed him to the clock tower that loomed over the sun-bathed Twilight Town. Axel got us some ice cream before we climbed to the top of the clock tower, where Demyx was waiting. Axel handed out the ice cream before he took a seat beside me. I nibbled on my ice cream but it tasted more salty than sweet. I know I shouldn't be sad about Ichigo leaving, it would've happened sooner or later, but he risked his life to save me when he didn't even know me.

I bite into my ice cream, letting the chunk melt in my mouth. He even stayed an extra week to make sure I was all right. I helped him defeat that maniac Hichigo or whatever, so we were even. I'm over-reacting but I can't help it. I'm not in the mood for my ice cream. I sign deeply as the first stars of the night begin to show.

"Roxas…I hate seeing someone when they're sad. Don't be angsty in front of me, do that with Zexion. What's on your mind?" Demyx wondered, his voice sounding compassionate.

"Do you…think we'll ever see Ichigo again?" I asked him finally.

Axel signed deeply and stuck his ice cream stick in his mouth. "Dunno, but we still have memories of him. If we have memories of someone, then they'll never be forgotten, right?" Axel smirked.

I smiled at his interjection, feeling my mood lift a little bit. "I guess you're right, Ichigo won't be forgotten anytime soon,"

"I won't forget him! It's because of him we pulled that awesome prank!" Demyx exclaimed as he high-fived me.

I hear a familiar tune from a certain instrument. I turn and see Demyx leaning against the clock tower, strumming his Sitar. He begins to sing as the last light of the day begin to fade away…

_I remember when, we used to laugh  
__About nothing at all, it was better than going mad  
__From trying to solve all the problems we're going through  
__Forget 'em all!_

'_Cause all those nights we would stand and never fight together,  
__We'd faced it all…remember when we'd?_

_Stay up late and we'd talk all night  
__In a dark room lit by the TV light  
__Through all the hard times in my life  
__Those nights kept me alive_

_Listen to the radio play all night  
__Didn't wanna go home to another fight  
__Through all the hard times in my life,  
__Those nights kept me alive_

_I remember when, we used to drive  
__Anywhere but here, as long as we'd forget our lives  
__We were so young and confused that we didn't know  
__To laugh or cry_

_Those nights were ours, they will live and never die together  
__We'd stand forever…remember when we'd?_

_Stay up late and we'd talk all night  
__In a dark room lit by the TV light  
__Through all the hard times in my life  
__Those nights kept me alive_

_Listen to the radio play all night  
__Didn't wanna go home to another fight  
__Through all the hard times in my life,  
__Those nights kept me alive_

_Those nights belong to us  
__There's nothing wrong with us  
__Those nights belong to us_

_I remember when…we used to laugh  
__And now I wish those nights would last…_

_Stay up late and we'd talk all night  
__In a dark room lit by the TV light  
__Through all the hard times in my life  
__Those nights kept me alive_

_Listen to the radio play all night  
__Didn't wanna go home to another fight  
__Through all the hard times in my life,  
__Those nights kept me alive_

_Those nights are known to us  
__There's nothing wrong…_

I smiled at Demyx as his Sitar turned into mist that the cool breeze blew away. Axel's eyes were closed and there was a playful smirk toying with his lips. Axel sat up and flashed a thumbs-up at Demyx.

"Thanks Demyx, I love that song," I told him.

"No prob, after all I'm sure we'll see Ichigo again. But I DON'T want to get the crap beat out of me to have that happen!" Demyx replied before chuckled at his joke.

Meanwhile…

**Ichigo's POV**

I lean against the old oak tree by the school as the sun sets over the horizon. I should be home by now, but my dad's probably asleep so he wouldn't know weather I'm home or not. I glance at the moon, faintly looking gold just like Kingdom Hearts had in the dark sky of The World That Never Was. I sign deeply as I climb onto the tree's lowest branch and sit there, still lost in my wondering thoughts. I missed Roxas, he was my age and we shared similar experiences like having to take care of some creepy monsters unwillingly.

"Hey Ichigo, thought I'd find you here," A voice snaps me out of my complex thoughts.

I look below me and see Rukia standing under me, a juice box in her hand.

"Hey Rukia, what brings you here?" I questioned jumping down from the tree branch.

"Two things: One, can you open this?" She handed me her juice box. "Two, I wanted to talk to you because you've been so depressed all week,"

I poked her straw through the top and handed the box back to her. "Took you long enough to notice," I muttered.

"I've been trying to decide what to say," Rukia began. "I know how you feel about missing Roxas. I struck a couple nice conversations with Zexion myself but back on track. You'll see Roxas again, with someone like Kisuke it'll probably be in no time at all," She sipped her juice.

I didn't answer for the longest time. I felt the need to save him because I wanted to save him from Aizen. I felt connected to him but I didn't know why. After we returned to The Castle That Never Was, I felt the urge to stay and look after him. Again, I didn't know why but I wanted to know weather he was okay or not.

Flashback…

"_Hey Ichigo, we're leaving," Renji told me._

_I gazed at Kingdom Hearts through the huge windows. I knew Roxas was in crappy condition and extremely weak. From overhearing Kisuke's conversations, when two different types of energy mix together it can cause awful things. What if Roxas was in a coma? What if he even died? I shook the thought from my head and turned towards Rukia and Renji, who were still waiting for my reply._

"_Can we stay a little longer?" I wondered._

"_Ichigo…we've already been gone a couple days and your family's going to start worrying if you're gone any longer. We shouldn't," Rukia replied._

"_I need to know what's going to happen to Roxas. I feel…connected to him somehow. We have something in common and I don't want to leave him, not knwoing weather he's going to make it through or not," I explained to her._

"_Right now, we don't know what'll happen," A voice interjects._

_I turn and see Axel walking towards me, his teal eyes telling me the whole story._

"_Roxas's condition isn't so great. He's weak and he's developing a fever from being cooped up in there for so long," Axel began explaining. "His wounds aren't that serious, so you can let that off your shoulders, but we're not sure what'll happen to him," _

_I felt a lump form at the back of my throat. "Can I see him?" _

_Axel nods as he leads me to a long hallway with doors lining the walls. There are labels on the walls like NO. II, NO. III, and No. IV. We walk down the hall until we reach a door that reads NO. XIII. I step inside the room and my eyes spot Roxas lying in his bed, deep asleep._

_His skin is pale and his hair hangs over a cool cloth that lies on his forehead. He's dressed in a sleeveless black shirt and his injured shoulder is bandaged tightly. His chest moves up and down in a steady rhythm as he breathes. I brush away the hair that hangs over his face as Axel puts a hand on my shoulder._

"_Don't worry, man. He'll be okay…according to Vexen and Xemnas," He tells me._

"_Is that a good thing?" I wonder._

_Axel shrugs. "Depends on how you look at it, Vexen's a mad scientist and Xemnas is well…Xemnas," He replies._

"_I'm neutral on that one,"_

"_So am I,"_

End Flashback…

I smile at that memory. Roxas was all right, so maybe I should just remember what I did for him. A complete stranger who turned to be, possibly, my best friend. I gaze at the sun as it dips below the horizon, turning the sky from golden, to purple, and finally to black. The moon shines a faint shade of gold, like Kingdom Hearts.

Enough with the touching ending, I'll never forget Roxas. Short, sweet, and you know my thoughts without me going on a whole chapter-long explaination.

**Author: Whew! Finally finished! I really hope you enjoyed this because, I certainly had fun typing it! I started typing this in September but didn't post it until I got an account. I was debating weather to finish it or not, but thanks to you I did! Thank you to all who favorited, reviewed, and subscribed. Special thanks to my older sis for editing this and Euregatto for giving me an idea for the last chapter. I hope you liked this story!**

**~yukihikari99**

**Kingdom Hearts (C) Square Enix**

**Bleach (C) Tite Kubo**

**Those Nights (C) Skillet**

**Anything else I missed (C) Whoever owns it**


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